

































































Ciass __ ... . ' \'c 

Book_i_l__ 

Copyright N?__ 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






















































































































































































The 

Brides of Christ 

(Sequel to Spiritual Maternity) 

By 

Mother Mary Potter 

Foundress of the 
Little Company of Mary 



OUR LADY'S LITTLE LIBRARY SERIES 


Published By 

MATRE & COMPANY 

CHICAGO 





NIHIL OBSTAT 
J. P. Furay, S. J. 
Censor Librorum 


IMPRIMATUR 

Georgius Gulielmus Mundelein 
Archiepiscopus Chicagiensis 
Die 5. Aprilis, 1920 


Copyrighted by 


THE LITTLE COMPANY OF MARY 
CHICAGO 
1920 

(All rights reserved) 


CONTENTS 


Part One 

THE SPOUSE OF JESUS IN THE 
BLESSED SACRAMENT 
Chapter Page 

I. The Spouse of Jesus. 1 

II. Fidelity to Grace. 18 

III. The Power of Faith. 31 

IV. Trust in God. 39 

V. Blessed Obedience . 48 

Part Two 

THE SPOUSE OF JESUS CRUCIFIED 

1. A Bride of Sorrow. 62 

II. Penance . 74 

III. Mortification . 82 

Part Three 

THE SPOUSE OF JESUS GLORIFIED 

I. The Reward. 90 

II. The Bride of Glory. 99 
















































■ 














FOREWORD 


All of us who know the full significance of the 
word mother will deeply appreciate the gentle ad¬ 
monitions, the deep and tender solicitude for souls, 
breathing throughout the pages of this little volume. 

Love of God necessitates a love for his crea¬ 
tures and a corresponding care for their every wel¬ 
fare. Therefore, the sacrifice of oneself for others 
is a natural sequence and a perusal of the maxims, 
instructions and admonitions contained in the fol¬ 
lowing pages will assure us that the “Little Moth¬ 
er,” the Foundress of the “Little Company of Mary” 
manifests her love of God in the wise counsel con¬ 
veyed to the “children of her congregation.” 

In deed we have the assurance of her father 
Confessor who on hearing a recital of her many 
extraordinary activities for her congregation, for 
the poor and for people of the world, remarked that 
the “mother” had done nothing else than to “Love 
God.” 

May her memory therefore be kept sacred and 
her counsel prevail among us for our spiritual wel¬ 
fare and advancement. 


I 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


AN APPRECIATION OF THE VENERABLE 
MOTHER MARY POTTER 

“MOTHER” 

(Of the “Little Company of Mary”) 

Sometimes a stranger, traveling through a new country 
or through a slightly known personality, will feel its sig¬ 
nificance, its salient distinctions, more poignantly than 
another to whom familiarity will have blurred the very 
landmarks that are unconsciously loved; while, paradox¬ 
ically, detail will have superseded the message of the 
whole. 

This is why it seems worth while for me to tell the 
little I know of the loveliest country through which my 
perception ever wandered: the country of a saint’s per¬ 
sonality. 

She was the Mother Foundress of the “Little Company 
of Mary,” and during her life she was known to all who 
loved her,—whether Sisters or seculars—as just “Mother.” 

Even now, after her death, when a new Mother General 
has necessitated some distinction of appellation, we do 
not call her by the stiffer name of “Mother Foundress.” 
We simply say “little” Mother, because her successor is 
tall, and it is a happy amendment, for Mother had exactly 
that quality of childlike, appealing naivete suggested by 
the word little: a something very fresh and simple which 
ran, like a thread of gold, through the holiness, the inflex¬ 
ible will, and the singleness of purpose from which she 
formed her own character and founded her Congregation. 

As I say, I did not know her well; but, what I did 
know, I knew vividly. 

Physically, Mother was not strictly beautiful, but her 
face was surprisingly attractive. I have often tried to 
analyze its elusive charm. I used to sit, as a child, staring 
at her solemnly while she conversed with my father or 
mother, endeavoring to find out just why Mother’s face 
was “so nice.” 

I remember being impressed by a certain effect of blue 
distance in her eyes, as though I were not so close to her 
as I had thought; yet their expression could not be de¬ 
scribed by the usual metaphor of looking through me at 
something: it was rather as if she looked through Some¬ 
thing at me. I remember deciding in my slangy, school- 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


II 


room parlance, that it was a ripping fine way to be looked 
at. 

Her nose was big and well cut, with the bone showing 
strongly, and she had very finely arched nostrils. Her 
mouth in repose was lightly closed, the lips only just 
touching, in one straight, generous line; and there was 
often that in its expression which, as a child, used to give 
me the idea “that Mother might be going to say some¬ 
thing funny." Later, when I grew up, I learned to appre¬ 
ciate more discriminately the delicate humor which charac¬ 
terized her. 

Personally, I never saw Mother except upon her sofa. 
I have been told, however, that she could walk—slowly 
and with great difficulty. She was an invalid nearly all 
her life, and her days and nights were often passed in 
pain which it is given to very few to bear. She used to 
sit, almost upright, upon a couch placed beside a large, 
open window overlooking the convent garden, and I 
never remember seeing that window closed. The sun 
would shine on her eager, loving little face as she talked 
and fall in soft pools of light over her long, blue veil; 
the wind would stir the shawl round her shoulders, and 
sometimes disarrange the papers on her desk, but she 
seemed to love them both; certainly I never saw her shut 
them out—but then I do not believe Mother ever shut 
anything or anybody out in the whole of her life. 

Her accessibility was certainly one of her most in¬ 
herent distinctions. Over and over again I have been in 
Mother’s room at one hour or another; and, not only was 
the window always open, but also the door. The latter 
opened on to a convent corridor along which the Sisters 
were constantly passing on errands or messages; and 
always the Mother’s door was open as wide as her heart, 
that her children might enter if they would. There was 
no permission needed from anyone else—no inquiries as 
to whether Mother was busy or engaged or elsewhere. 
One could see for oneself, through the welcoming door¬ 
way, straight to the Mother’s face. 

Sometimes the draught was riotous—but what of that? 
Unless a visitor felt it too strongly, or somebody wished 
to talk privately, it made no difference. It was absolutely 
necessary to Mother’s heart that the door should stand 
open in order that fresh air might freely enter the room; 
it was even more necessary to Mother’s soul that the door 
be open in order that her children might do likewise. 
Trifles such as scattered letters and fugitive sheets of man¬ 
uscript were merely an excuse for exercising that quaint, 


ill 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


laughing patience which she showed towards all inanimate 
things when they had “no manners.” 

As I wander down the path of my memories of Mother, 
this accessibility stands out with the emphasis of a land¬ 
mark, so much did it seem to be the counterpart of a 
deeper though intangible equivalent in her spirituality. 

One can only grope for words into which to break a 
whole thought into tne pieces of speech; but the nearest 
analogy, to me, is that suggested by untrammelled free¬ 
dom. How often, when attempting to enter the inner life 
of some friend: to make acquaintance with their hidden 
and most significant self, we are brought up short by a 
blurred sense of barrier. These conscious or subconscious 
reserves vary with the personality. Some, metaphorically, 
raise stone walls as the boundary beyond which not even 
the most loving seeker may explore; with others the line 
of demarcation may only be the equivalent of a flowered 
hedge, or a ribbon of running water; but in nearly all deep 
natures, if one proceed far enough, one is met, sooner or 
later, by that feeling of halt. 

Now Mother’s inner life seemed barred in no direction: 
nor did any boundaries, apparently, enclose it. There 
were no walls, no fences, no forbidden territory; there 
were only great distances and far horizons. There were 
sudden heights reaching to white summits difficult to see; 
there were stretches and stretches of a lovely and stead¬ 
fast monotony, there were lonely, broken-hearted descents 
into Gethsemanes of suffering at which one can merely 
guess; but nowhere was there any exclusion. I do not 
think that many people can have explored far into Moth¬ 
er’s inner life—such spiritual immensities are hard to cover 
by small and stumbling souls; but one always had the in¬ 
stinct that Mother would—in childish terminology—“let 
one in to go where one liked.” If one wanted to learn 
the entire country of Mother, one could—anyone, every¬ 
one, could. One’s own limitations were the only impedi¬ 
ment; it was one’s own incapacity to press on, and see 
far and climb courageously which raised the only barrier 
between one’s soul and Mother’s. It was oneself who was 
fettered, and walled in, and reserved, but Mother was like 
a lovely, simple wide-openness. 

And this brings us, through some elusive connection 
of thought, to another of the salient points in her per¬ 
sonality—her strange and alluring paradoxes. She had a 
really extraordinary faculty for being two opposite things 
at one and the same time; and these two, apparent, con- 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


IV 


tradictions, meeting in her, seemed to fuse into a third 
quality describable only by the words—“just Mother.” 

For example, she was quite the sweetest, most yield¬ 
ingly docile person that I have ever known; but she also 
had an inflexibility of will—a capacity for ruthlessly over¬ 
ruling other people’s wishes, which I have never seen 
equalled. 

Now such contrary traits, if considered separately, are 
by no means unusual. Many persons can be at one time 
firm and at another pliable; but Mother did not seem to 
have her strong moments and her submissive ones. She 
was always determined, and yet equally was she always 
yielding, plastic, gentle as a child. The mingling of these 
two qualities can only be described in terms of result. 
Mother, very quietly—almost shyly—enforced an unbend¬ 
ing will upon everybody once she believed that a certain 
line of action was right. But did we not all subcon¬ 
sciously feel that it was the Will of God which she, real¬ 
izing poignantly according to her lights, enforced upon us 
at all costs, at the same time submitting to it herself more 
humbly than the lowest in the house? I am certain that 
in this lay the secret of her rare blending of dominance 
with meekness: of compelling and yet herself obeying at 
one and the same moment. Mother in some way gave the 
impression pf, quiet impersonally, surrendering to her 
one will, very much as might one of her children; and 
this impression arose from an equally strong conviction 
that it was never precisely her own will which she was 
exerting. 

I remember how often I used to be struck by a cer¬ 
tain expression on Mother’s face when anybody talked to 
her. An arresting little look of intense and loving atten¬ 
tion that always opened up a vista of speculation in my 
mind as to what and to whom she might be attending. 
Was it to my actual words that she listened so earnestly? 
Was it to me at all? Myself, I am convinced that she 
attended all her life to only one Person under His mil¬ 
lion disguises. She knew Him through every one of them. 
She recognized Him under apparently blinding conceal¬ 
ments. It has been remarked of Mother that she saw 
something in everybody, but perhaps it could be more 
truly said that she saw Someone in everybody. To me, 
this little recognizing look, together with the accessibil¬ 
ity of which I have spoken, gave to Mother’s individuality 
its special and distinctive flavour. Another characteristic 
which was eminently hers was Generosity in its widest sig¬ 
nificance. Generosity of heart and mind and standpoint. 


V 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Generosity of word and deed. For instance, she was one 
of those rare people who do honestly rejoice at a rival’s 
success and grieve over his failure. If Mother could have 
prospered her own Congregation immeasurably at the 
expense of one day’s detriment to another, she would 
hardly have realized that there was a choice to be made, 
so impossible would it have seemed to her to benefit will¬ 
fully by another’s loss. 

Materially this generosity expressed itself in a verita¬ 
ble passion for helping people, and for giving them things. 
Everything upon which Mother could—so to speak—lay 
her hands, was requisitioned for this purpose. Letters, 
money, conversations, introductions, influence, advice— 
anything to help people. People of every description: 
the poor; the well to do; the lonely; the strange; those 
at cross purposes; those with impossible temperaments; 
people who wanted what they could not get, or were en¬ 
during what they did not want; people with plans, and 
people with none; people who wanted every variety of 
thing, from an operation to a few pennies, people who 
needed, or did not need hospitality; hospitality which in 
either case they generally received. And was there ever 
such golden hospitality as little Mother’s? Was there 
ever anyone with such unlimited ideas as to what is cov¬ 
ered by the word? It was indeed a case of what is mine 
is thine. Her small hospitalities were as touching—and 
I might say as big—as her seemingly greater ones; and 
into them there always crept that mystical sense of duality 
so inseparable from Mother: the feeling that she was doing 
two things at once, and one rather more than the other. 
Her most simple deed glowed with the significance which 
stood behind it. I wonder how many cups of cold water 
Mother gave to our souls disguised as cups of hot tea for 
our bodies. 

How she loved giving things I Anything, everything, 
to anybody. She was a living illustration of that searching 
principle realized by so few—that it does not matter what 
you give so long as you do give. If the gifts were appro¬ 
priate—well and good: Mother would be so glad; but 
better give unwanted things than not give at all. To her 
the giving was the momentous and intrinsic act: what 
one gave was comparatively negligible—mere visible sym¬ 
bols of the realty. It is difficult for us, with our wholly 
human standards, to grasp a point of view so foreign. Our 
idea of giving is to select a suitable object, whether in 
proportion or kind, and bestow it discriminately upon an 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


VI 


appreciative recipient: the right gift to the right man. 
Mother’s conception of the same word was “anything to 
anybody”—only give, always give. 

Of her personal relations with the Congregation which 
she founded, it is obviously impossible for an outsider 
to speak. It is to be hoped that some day her life will be 
given to the world; and only then will it be known just 
how much an absolutely unswerving love of God can ac¬ 
complish in the teeth of obstacles, discouragement, pov¬ 
erty and ill-health. But even a secular may describe the 
exterior attitude which existed for all to see between the 
Foundress and her nuns. 

It was not merely that she seemed such a mother to 
them, and they so much her baby grown-up children, 
but she was so wonderfully their friend. Friend in the 
meaning of that sensitive, profound sympathy which is 
independent of assurances and explanations. Friend in 
the most cosy and confidential sense of the word: some¬ 
body to whom could be told things too small or too silly 
to be brought to anyone else; things that only gained 
any point at all by being told to Mother. Somebody 
who was always eager to hear, and who wanted to un¬ 
derstand exactly; not in the altruistic sense of being 
what is called a good listener, but through a purely per¬ 
sonal affection for, and interest in the teller. One never 
felt how well Mother listened, but rather how much she 
cared. Two facts always struck me. One was: that 
there seemed to be nobody whom the Sisters feared as 
they feared Mother,—not with the timidity that cowers, 
but with the beautiful, upright fear which, being rooted 
in great love, dreads anything which could strike at its 
foundation. The other: that there was no one with whom 
the Sisters were so much at their ease—so essentially “at 
home.” I do not know how they conveyed this impres¬ 
sion, for they certainly did not reduce it to words; but, 
if one lived amongst them as I did, one felt, in some 
intangible way, what might be described as the atmos¬ 
phere of their Mother’s effect upon them. It was as 
though she stood to them for certain ideas of a very pre¬ 
cious and tender and comforting nature, somewhat anal¬ 
ogous, on the material plane, to the thoughts conjured by 
the words such as home, rest, forgiveness, fireside. 

She was extremely prone to tiny acts of kindness: 
more so than anybody I have ever known. Trivial ar¬ 
rangements and preparations; little considerate plans, 
trifling messages; assentment to requests so unimportant 
that they almost seemed like whims. These little kind- 


VII 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


nesses and permissions were for the most part negligibly 
small: mere summer daisies among the finer flowers of 
her charity; and perhaps it is only now, in the winter of 
her absence, that one fully realizes just how softly daisies 
can carpet the stiff grass of daily life. 

How difficult it is to describe a person. I have re¬ 
read these few pages, and I find that what I have said is 
faithfully exact: Mother was all these things—but she 
was so much more besides. She was so much that cannot 
be put into words: so much that, told by itself, loses the 
colour and harmony of the whole. I am like a vagrant 
artist showing sketches of some fair scenery. I cannot 
convey the beauty in its entirety; I cannot make you see 
it from the window of my standpoint precisely as I saw it; 
I can only work haltingly with a few, rapid, ineffectual 
lines, at isolated points which I remember. 

I can visualize her suddenly and convincingly, almost 
as though I had only now left her in her bare, white 
room. I see her, as usual between the open door and the 
open window—the beloved little figure so pathetically 
erect upon its couch of pain. I notice, abstractedly, cer¬ 
tain material objects—just as I used to do—the roughly 
soft texture of the white shawl covering her shoulders, 
against which the red braid from which the Crucifix hung 
made such a striking splash of colour upon her breast; 
the long, pale blue veil falling straightly and smoothly to 
either side of her, the ends gathered round her, over her 
lap, like a cloak. I recall her face: very tired, very loving, 
and alive with that wonderful little listening expression. 
I can see her bending forward—she had a way of bend¬ 
ing forward when she talked—and then I have said some¬ 
thing, or she has, there comes a very faint smile, a slight 
turning of the head, and—her favorite ejaculation—“Dear 
little Jesus!” 

A certain priest, one who knew Mother intimately, 
spoke of her to me after her death. I had been comment¬ 
ing on the extraordinary activity of Mother’s life. How, 
chained to her sofa, she yet accomplished so much: for 
her own Congregation, for the poor, for people of the 
world. I alluded to her foundations in various parts of 
the earth: to her writings: to her work in the interests of 
nursing. “She did so many things,” I remarked. The 
priest who knew her was silent a moment, then he said: 
“You are wrong. She only seemed to be doing many 
things. In reality she only did one thing throughout the 
whole of her life:—she loved God.” 

—Ruth Lindsay, in “The Month” Magazine, Nov., 1919. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


PART ONE 

THE SPOUSE OF JESUS IN THE 
BLESSED SACRAMENT 

CHAPTER ONE 

The Spouse of Jesus 

Quae est ista? Who is she? Consider the angels. 
Angelic intelligence alone can fathom the beauty 
of this work of God. What work? That Passion 
flower of Jesus, His true spouse. What is she? 
An atom God created! He drew her out of noth¬ 
ingness ! Far, far in the mind of God there was 
this conception of a lovely being. She was to be 
the fruit of His Passion. She was to be formed 
and nourished by His precious blood. She was to 
be the spouse of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 
By the grace of that life giving sacrament she was 
to live her blessed life. Through that holy sacra¬ 
ment she would be strengthened for her life on the 
cross. She was to be known by the angels as the 
spouse of Jesus crucified, and the cherished object 
of their love. Who is she? She is the Bride of 
Christ! 


2 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Dear Sisters, in moments of wavering, of un¬ 
certainty, when there may be hesitation in soaring 
into the higher altitudes of perfection, or some 
weakness of the will inclining us to evil, some 
yearning to look back or hearkening to the voice 
of nature, then lift up your spirits into the com¬ 
pany of the angels. Look forward to that eternal 
life when your whole being will be united forever 
and forever with the Source of Life whence you 
came. Then those choirs of angels, who watched 
you so tenderly while on earth, will sing the praises 
of the most high God; will proclaim His mercy to 
that creature whom he drew with His Everlasting 
Love from the earth, and exalted to heaven that 
she might adorn His Heavenly Kingdom as the 
Bride of Christ. 

Poor little ones of earth, toiling, perhaps, under 
a tropical sun; laboring to civilize those of God’s 
creatures who know Him not; watching by the 
bedside of the unbelievers; remember always that 
you are the Brides of Christ. Yes, you must re¬ 
member this even before you think of that great 
grace vouchsafed to sinful creatures of earth: that 
great grace of union with Jesus in the Blessed Sac¬ 
rament. Always, always our union with Jesus in 
the Blessed Sacrament must be before us, for it is 
only by this union we are able to follow Jesus on 
the Way of the Cross, and be wedded to Him in 
that wonderful mystical union of His passion that 
makes us the Brides of Christ. This is our grand 
vocation, and for it we need the heavenly food of 
the Blessed Sacrament. We need to know Our 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


3 


Lord in the breaking of Bread. We need to feed 
upon Him, to take our life from Him, to be enam¬ 
oured with His love, “to love the place where' His 
Glory dwelleth,” to take to ourselves wings and 
to be at rest at the foot of His Tabernacle, to wait 
with eagerness the morn that is to bring Him to 
us, to link our souls with Him, to make us one with 
Him forever. 

Dear Lord, Who lovest to nestle in the hearts 
and souls of those who love You; who love naught 
but You; who are Yours entirely, make us ever 
Thine! 

Only they are His true spouses, who, enamoured 
of His beauty, have said with the young virgin 
martyr, St. Agnes, I have no other love but Jesus 
Christ. May that gentle Christ be ever loved more 
and more by His consecrated ones, the lilies of His 
precious blood, the Brides of Christ! May they in¬ 
crease and multiply a hundred-fold to delight the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus, their beloved! Yes, Oh 
Spouse of Jesus, spend your time at the foot of 
the Tabernacle. Come with your soul pure and 
clean for your Divine Spouse. 

Not mere sentiment should prompt your love 
for the Blessed Sacrament. You need this strength¬ 
ening food if you would be firm and walk faithfully 
in the steps of Jesus to Calvary. During the day 
visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament often. Re¬ 
fresh your spirits and strengthen your soul every 
hour of the day with Spiritual Communion that will 
make you yearn for the holy hour in which He 
will come to you. Prepare well for your daily 


4 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Communion. When entering the Chapel say: “J esus 
is coming on earth for me! He will enter one spe¬ 
cial Host for me! He will be consecrated for me! 
He will come on the altar to be born again for me! 
Oh, Sweet Jesus! Unworthy though I am, abide 
in me! Grant that I may never be separated from 
Thee who hast done so much for me!” 

Our whole body and soul, our very life depends 
on the Blessed Sacrament. We must be penetrated 
with Its Virtue. It must live in us, we must exist 
for It. We must breathe Jesus in the Blessed Sac¬ 
rament. We must love to be near Him. We must 
increase, not diminish our visits. We must go to 
Holy Communion day after day, with increasing 
preparation, never relaxing therein, because wd 
fancy that we have acquired some habitual union 
with Our Lord in the Sacrament of His Love. If 
we should ever weary, we must then urge ourselves 
on by every kind of pious practices. Pay more 
visits, make more spiritual communions and keep 
offering our Lady's dispositions. Make the inten¬ 
tion that every time you recite the Ave you will make 
the words Blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb Jesus 
a spiritual communion. 

We cannot please Our Lord better than bv 
bringing Him the dispositions of His holy Mother. 
We immerse ourselves in the splendor of the Im¬ 
maculate Conception of our Lady, offering that 
rare privilege to Our Dear Lord and thanking Him 
for it. We assume to ourselves the maternity of 
our Lady, watching with her over the Babe of 
Bethlehem, working with her in the cottage at 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


5 


Nazareth, following Him in His public ministry 
throughout Galilee, and finally standing with her 
beneath the Cross on Calvary 

It may be sometimes we are left cold with few 
thoughts, because, perhaps, we depended too much 
upon our own devotion. We might think we were 
getting very angelic in prayer, whereas we are 
losing humility even in the presence of the Blessed 
Sacrament. Rather should we approach Him in all 
our spiritual poverty, relying on the dispositions of 
Our Lady, and truthfully acknowledging that our 
highest dispositions cannot honor or worship God 
like those of His Blessed Mother, who was favored 
above all. Ah! Mother bring thy children to Jesus! 
Keep us at His feet! Mother draw your favored 
ones close up to His Sacred Heart! Hearken to 
our Mother's answer: “Only those of my children 
who will be crowned with thorns; whose hands 
and feet will be pierced with nails; whose flesh 
shall be scourged and whose heart pierced with 
the lance—only those shall have a special place 
near to the Heart of my Jesus! “Sisters Dear, will 
we have that special place or will we refuse it? If 
the Mother asked you, you would answer gener¬ 
ously, you would refuse Jesus nothing. You want 
to delight His Heart, no matter what it costs you. 
Ah then, Dear Sisters, loved ones of God, if you 
would be Spouses of Jesus Crucified, love Jesus in 
the Blessed Sacrament for you can only be united 
with Him in the Sacrament of His love.” 

For a great purpose has Holy Church instituted 
the ceremony of profession of perpetual Vows, 


6 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


which entitles you to be the Spouses of Jesus Glori¬ 
fied for all eternity. As you pronounce your Vows, 
the Blessed Sacrament is held before you. It is to 
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament you are bound. 
You are face to face with the Word Incarnate. The 
gates of the Sanctuary are thrown open to you, and 
the Blessed Sacrament is given you for your very 
own. Jesus is yours! Jesus Our Lord! No one 
can take Him, your Beloved* from you! You 
exulted in your heart, “He is mine, my very own!” 
Then you thought nothing would ever trouble you 
more. Bride of Jesus, on that occasion, the angels 
chanted it—Bride of Jesus—pityingly, as well as 
jubilantly, for they know poor human nature. They 
know how hard it is to rise from that trance of 
love on Jesus’ bosom and keep the watch on Cal¬ 
vary. They have seen the most loving souls fail 
their God. 

Dear Sisters, ever remember this as you rest 
on Jesus’ bosom, and whilst leaning on His Breast 
plead earnestly to be faithful. “My Jesus keep me! 
Jesus, your little one looks with envy on those holy 
virgins close pressed for ever to Thee! They were 
faithful on Calvary’s heights and now walk with 
Thee forever! They now reign with Thee, rejoic¬ 
ing that they are a joy to Thee forever and forever! 
Oh, sweet heart of Jesus, give me the grace to be 
ever faithful to Thee, and grant that I may one 
day walk after Thee in the company of all your 
holy Virgins!” Oh! Blessed Ones pray for us 
thy sisters on earth, who would be firm as you 
were, that we fail not. Help us by turning now 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 7 

to Jesus, and plead for us by the Blood of His 
Heart. 

We would not be half-hearted, half for this 
world and self, and half for Jesus. Ah no! We 
would be wholly God’s, the precious fruit of Jesus’ 
Passion. My God! Would we could see ourselves 
as the angels see us, our dignity, our greatness! 
As we view our state, its privileges and its rights, 
we sink in the depth of our own vileness and turn 
to lean upon the great power that gave us life. It 
is thus we return again to our God—God on earth 
with us. Jesus thou hast made Thyself one with 
us. Keep us. And the Voice of Our Love speaks 
to us as to the favored one who first heard those 
words: “Think of Me, daughter, and I will ever 
think of thee.” 

There is, dear Sisters, union of thought with 
Jesus. Ah! how much it means! All our thoughts 
are treasured by Our Lord. We have many mental 
gifts to offer Him. We have always the power to 
think thoughts in union with our Love. What are 
they? They are the very essence of ourselves, our 
spirit. They beget good or evil deeds. My God, 
may my thoughts ever be centered in Thee! There 
is only one means, dear Sisters, by which we can 
keep up our thoughts from grovelling in the mire 
of sensuality, by which we can keep breathing what 
Father Faber calls “That high mountain air,” and 
that is—The Blessed Sacrament! We cannot be 
nuns, we cannot live the life of union with Jesus, 
without He Himself supports us, and holds us in 
His arms. We shall fail, we shall fall, we shall 


8 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


become dry without Him. I am smitten as grass 
and my heart is withered, for I have forgotten to 
eat my bread. Ah! Yes, well impressed with this 
thought we shall wisely walk in the desert ever 
leaning on our Beloved. 

Quae est istaf Ah! No tongue of mortal can 
tell who, or what she is, or what is her worth to 
God! If the angels in wondering adoration ask 
this question, can we answer it? They know all 
things better than we do, yet even they are lost in 
wonder at her beauty, for she is impregnated with 
the glory of the Blessed Sacrament. Again and 
again must I repeat it; a true spouse of Jesus must 
be united with Him in His Sacramental Life. She 
cannot live as a spouse of Jesus should live with¬ 
out this union, for union with Jesus in the Blessed 
Sacrament makes easy what would otherwise be so 
difficult to our unaided human nature. Yes! The 
nature of Jesus, His Life, His Blood, is given to us 
in the Blessed Sacrament, and we are raised above 
ourselves. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all things 
to Myself.” Thou hast drawn us, Dear Jesus, and 
we have come to live with Thee upon the cross; 
to be molded into a work of Thy Holy Spirit; to be 
known as spouses of Jesus Crucified, but, Oh, sweet 
Jesus, we must first be spouses of Thine in Thy 
Sacrament of Love ere we lean upon Thy Breast 
with Thy beloved disciple and hear the pulsations 
of Thy Sacred Heart! Oh, dear Jesus, we need to 
be thus drawn closely to Thee, if we would live 
with Thee upon the cross, and feel those other 
beatings of thy crushed heart as they come and go 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


9 


with intermittent throbs in Thy Death Agony! 

Cultivate this union of thought with Jesus in 
the Blessed Sacrament by frequent visits, by receiv¬ 
ing Holy Communion daily, or as often as 
allowed, and by constantly making spiritual com¬ 
munions, which, we are told, merit Grace more 
precious than pearls of great price. Though we 
have said this before, we must say it to you again, 
as we say it to ourselves: “The Spouse of Jesus 
must live by the strength and grace of the Blessed 
Sacrament. ,, 

It is certainly true, dear Sisters, that as the 
body is nourished by its corporal food, so the soul 
must be nourished and strengthened by the spirit¬ 
ual food of the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, we are 
told, the Blessed Sacrament will be visible in our 
glorified bodies in Heaven. St. Gertrude speaks 
in terms forcible, wonderful when she exclaims of 
Jesus, “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.” We 
hesitate and wonder. Can we use the words of the 
Saint as she used them? We are timid! We look 
into Jesus* face, realize we are in His presence, 
breathe the perfume of His sweet Sacramental life, 
and we too whisper “bone of my bone, flesh of my 
flesh.” 

Surely, for religious, is Jesus in the Blessed 
Sacrament, a model, sweet and gentle. There is an 
atmosphere of Jesus around the tabernacle. Ah! 
There seems to be something of the silence of 
eternity around the monstrance as Jesus is exposed 
on His throne! We linger; we are loathe to leave 
Him! It is wise, it is well! We work for Him 


10 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


here, as well as at our other duties. This is the 
first duty of Jesus’ Spouse; to be part of His court 
on earth. She must be in constant attendance; she 
must be here to await His bequests and to receive 
instructions regarding His commands. Her life 
work, her eternal work, is here. She must physically 
leave that hallowed spot, but her heart must re¬ 
main there spiritually. Jesus must take all her 
delight, for He glories in dwelling with His lilies 
of the earth. Their perfume has an exceedingly 
sweet odor to Him; a fragrance that savors even 
of Heaven. 

Faith and Hope are found shining in Mary’s 
children with some little of her own brightness. 
It is a reward she gives to better fit her Own to 
be The Brides of Jesus, as long as they dwell in 
humility. Dear Sisters, while we remember our 
evil natures, we should be ever clothed with our 
mother in double clothing; for we are clothed also 
with the garments of Our Lord Jesus as long as 
we do our part. The glory of Jesus, the treasures 
of His Sacred Humanity are ours, as Mary our 
Mother, mirroring His perfections, covers her chil¬ 
dren with her purity, her meekness her humility. 
Mortification and a spirit of penance is necessary 
to shine with our Mother’s purity; gentleness to all 
around; meekness and patience striving for good 
brings the odor of Mary’s sweetness, and diving 
daily into our own nothingness brings us her true 
humility. 

Dear Sisters, strive to deceive no one. God sees 
us, knows our every thought. One penetrating ray 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


11 


of His light reveals us to ourselves. We know we 
cannot put on our souls religious virtues or relig¬ 
ious hearts, as we put on our bodies religious habits. 
We know to be clothed as religious would be a 
mocking hypocrisy, unless the garb of penance we 
wear exteriorally betokened the spirit of penance 
we have attained interiorally. We do not want to 
be whited sepulchres. If we wear what betokens 
that we are consecrated to the Heart of Jesus, we 
must be striving to keep our hearts in union with 
the emanations of His Sacred Heart. If we wear 
a veil of blue, typical of Our Lady, we must urge 
ourselves to imitate her and be Mary like. Strive 
to imitate her; be solicitous that all about you be 
more pleasing to Jesus and His holy Mother. Most 
especially should this be of our own family, and 
by our own family, we mean all the Spouses of 
Jesus. 

We should indeed be sisters in religion, all ani¬ 
mated with love for one another, each anxious that 
each flower (that is each religious body) should 
bloom to perfection after her kind. We should 
grieve at any deterioration in the religious spirit 
among those who live close to the Heart of Jesus. 
We deceive ourselves if we think we are true 
Spouses of Jesus, which means one in union of 
heart and soul with Our Lord, if we lack this sis¬ 
terly affection for other Communities. If we find 
that we do not love other Orders, other Sister¬ 
hoods, with some little love of the Sacred Heart, 
how can we think we are Spouses of that Dear 
Heart? When we want to please a mother we show 


12 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


love to her infant, or bring presents to her chil¬ 
dren, so the Spouses of Jesus must be in harmony 
with His Sacred Heart and love all His children. 

The spiritual combat, dear Sisters, goes on all 
our lives, we have to fight the good fight for which 
we hope to be ultimately crowned. We have to be 
brave, valiant, courageous; we may bravely do pen¬ 
ance one day, but we cannot leave it off the next 
day because we feel cowardly. If we go by our 
feelings and are led by them, they will drag us 
down to hell. 

We must be on our guard against despondency 
and faintheartedness which at times comes over us. 
Look into the heart, its roots are in self-love. 
We sometimes look at Grace as part of ourselves, 
rising out of our own nature, whereas it is a free 
gift of God. He gives it to the one who cries out 
to Him: “Oh God! I am needy and poor, help 
thou me.” Only the humble of heart receive the 
grace of God. The Grace of Jesus is poured into 
them. It does not rise out of their nature; it is 
given to them from that dear Sacred Heart of 
whose fullness we have all received. 

There is a lesson that should be learned today, 
tomorrow and every day, for only by having it 
strongly imprinted upon our minds, and putting it 
in practice, will we advance spiritually. It is the 
constant going to our Dear Lord when we feel 
needy and poor and taking help from Him by means 
of the Sacraments received, really or spiritually. 
We can receive Holy Communion but once a day, 
in reality, but any number of times during the day 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


13 


will our Dear Lord spiritually raise His hand in 
pardon, absolution, benediction over us; many 
times will He clasp us to His Heart and feed us 
with His most precious blood if we but ask Him. 

We may at times feel perfectly helpless to over¬ 
come some temptation, to bear some cross which 
seems impossible to carry. It is as though we were 
spiritually paralyzed. We try to argue philosoph¬ 
ically ; we bring to our minds many good thoughts; 
we recall wise and prudent advice that has been 
given to us, but to no avail. Thus we may remain 
undisturbed, uncomfortable, even guilty of a cer¬ 
tain amount of venial sin, vacillating in our weak¬ 
ness, lacking true firmness. Suddenly a ray of sun¬ 
shine comes to us. An angel whispers we are weak 
because we forgot to eat our Bread. I am smitten 
as grass and my heart is withered because I forgot 
to eat my bread. We turn to Dear Jesus, we take 
from Him, by means of a fervent spiritual com¬ 
munion, what we want; whether it be patience, 
resignation, fortitude or whatever may be our need; 
and where is now that block, that stone that was 
in our way? It is rolled away. We are strength¬ 
ened, hopeful, wiser from our weakness. 

It is well for us to know that our whole strength, 
our whole life is in Jesus and derived from Him. 
Let us learn our lesson well, and never need an¬ 
other to prove to us where our strength lies. With 
St. Paul let us say, I can do all things in Him zvho 
strengthens me. With this motto sunk deeply into 
our souls we shall conquer all difficulties, we shall 
fight the good fight well, and strive with the world. 


14 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


the flesh and the devil, not only for ourselves but 
for others. We shall then be fruitful spouses of 
Jesus; we shall give Him children; we shall con¬ 
quer even hardened souls by the grace that He will 
give us, because we shall know so well that it is 
not ourselves but Jesus who conquers in us. 

It is most certain that those who conquer them¬ 
selves have a power to conquer others. How neces¬ 
sary then is this power for us whose one end and 
aim in life is striving after our own perfection. 
No pain should be, and no pain shall be too great 
to do our work for our Lord, and to bring Him 
children for whom He died. For this will we 
labor in our own souls, sparing no pains. Why 
should we be lukewarm; no profit comes from it, 
no peace, but with an earnest persevering will, and 
that dependence that our dear Lord so loves, we 
shall win souls because we shall have Jesus with¬ 
in us. 

Again and again we have failed, because we 
have not leaned sufficiently on our Lord. We find 
that we have become remiss because we have lost 
some grace. It is not so difficult to discern when 
our fervor is growing cold. It is a sure sign that 
when we do not love others as we once did, do not 
love to do acts of kindness for them, that the God 
of Love is not reigning in our souls as He should 
be. If Christ is not king over your soul what a 
dull life you will lead? Especially is this true of 
religious if their souls burn not with the love for 
others, or if they are not constantly employed in 
acts of kindness. In this state of tepidity their 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


15 


prayers may be a delusion, also, a worship of self 
rather than a worship of God. 

Now of all whom we should love are there any 
whom we should love as our own Sisters in relig¬ 
ion? Are they not Sisters of the Sacred Heart, 
the same as we are? Does He not love them with 
that love of God which has drawn them into exist¬ 
ence? Has not His Mother a Mother’s love for 
all? Does she not care for them as lilies of the 
Precious Blood? And if She loves them because 
they are so dear to Jesus, must not also we? It is 
indeed incomprehensible how Jesus’ Spouses who 
should be so near to His Sacred Heart, loving 
therefore all It loves, are not attracted with this 
love for all the great Communities in God’s Church. 
We can simply say that if a Sister has not this 
love for all the religious Orders of the Church she 
is not near to the Sacred Heart, not even as near 
as seculars. The ordinary good Christian loves 
religious Orders and strives to help and benefit 
them, thereby drawing close to the Sacred Heart. 
Therefore, should the religious Orders love one 
another, and take an active interest in one another’s 
doings. “My little children,” said Christ, “love ye 
one another, for by this shall all men know that 
ye are my disciples.” 

The young members of the Community, espe¬ 
cially the postulants, should be taught this neces¬ 
sary foundation of a true religious spirit, that they 
may not fall into any petty womanly spite, quite 
unbecoming the nobility of mind and purity of soul 
of a true Spouse of Jesus. Meditate on this, dear 


16 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Sisters! I do not say that there is much need of 
this warning, but history tells us of petty strifes 
between religious orders, and, occasionally, in our 
own day, we have known such cases, but they are 
not the rule, thanks be to God, but rather the ex¬ 
ception. As for ourselves, we would like to thank 
publicly many religious Orders, both as a body and 
as individual members, for much assistance given 
our young Community. We implore Almighty God 
to bless with His choicest graces all those loved 
Sanctuaries where He has taken His delight. We 
think of those whom we know best, and, yet, pray 
for all. 

There is joy and quietude of spirit in thinking 
of the holy places where Jesus is entirely loved; 
where each Community, in their own special way, 
according to their own rules, and by their own 
work; work inspired by God’s Holy spirit and given 
them to cherish particularly; labor to accomplish 
His Holy purposes. Ah! as the tale of man’s 
misery, the oft repeated story of sin and sorrow is 
recounted to us, where we see the flood of iniquity 
inundating the world, and sparing not even the 
homes of the good, how glad we are to know that 
God reigns in some parts of His creation! God 
still reigns because love still reigns, and where love 
reigns there is indeed a foretaste of heaven! 

The Spouse of Incarnate love must be all love, 
and, advance as we may in the queen of virtues, 
charity, still we have little idea how far we are 
from its perfection. We sometimes catch a glimpse 
of it that shows us how imperfect is our charity, 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


17 


because charity is not simply patience, benevol¬ 
ence, generosity; it is a real turning of the heart to 
a loved one, and the giving all possible good to the 
object loved. Charity is union of heart and soul 
with the object beloved, and this charity, when 
perfected as it will be in heaven, makes us rejoice 
in another's happiness as though it were our own. 
'‘Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, 
dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;—Is not 
ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked 
to anger; thinketh no evil;—Rejoiceth not in in¬ 
iquity, but rejoiceth with the truth;—Beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
dureth all things" (1 C. 13 4-7). “Charity never 
falleth away; whether prophecies shall be made 
void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be 
destroyed" (1C. 13, 8). 


CHAPTER TWO 


Quae est Ista? 

Fidelity to Grace 

O glorious St. Michael, children of earth rejoice 
with you! The Brides of Christ exult because thou 
didst stand firm when others fell! O victorious St. 
Michael, help us on earth, strengthen us to be faith¬ 
ful! 

Fidelity is summed up in being faithful to God 
in the hour of trial. God Himself is never wanting 
on His part. He gives all that is necessary to us, 
and more fidelity to every Grace is all that is lack¬ 
ing in us. 

Dear Sisters, whom I so love, Brides of Christ 
in every land, hearken to an echo from the Heart 
of Jesus. “Love is in my Heart”! I ask you thiough 
the love I bear you to listen with love, as I write 
with love, and bear with me if it seems one speaks 
who has no right. Let us examine ourselves in 
the full light of the Sun of Justice, our own dear 
Lord, “Jesus Corona Virginum.” 

What are we? What should we have been if 
we had been faithful to every grace? Here is food 
for humility. Here is occasion to kneel at our 
Lady’s feet, penitently saying with bowed head, 
“We have offended against the Divine Justice, the 
Majesty of our Lord; we have neglected His holy 
inspirations; we have squandered our patrimony; 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


19 


we have hidden, maybe we have lost, the talents 
God has given us; we have used His money for a 
purpose He has not given it.” My God, what a 
vista opens up before us, we who had no thought 
of classifying ourselves with the prodigal son, what 
a wholesome shame creeps over us; we who could 
say with St. Peter, depart from me, 0 Lord, for 
I am a sinful man! However, we feel we must 
draw nearer from our very need. We must draw 
closer to Jesus humbly, saying: “For I, O Lord, 
am needy and poor, help thou me!” God never re¬ 
sists the cry of the humble heart. He inclines 
towards us, like the mother to the weak child, who 
is ever anxious to feed and nourish it. Our Jesus 
draws His loved one to Himself to strengthen her, 
and the child of earth is renewed again in spirit. 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who brings back 
the strayed one, for, Dear Sisters, we stray more 
often, and are more often pricked with thorns than 
we imagine. We think God is trying us, and prov¬ 
ing our fidelity, when it is only we ourselves who 
are unfaithful to Grace. We think we are martyrs 
when we are but nurturing self. We are wounded, 
yes, we are pricked with thorns, but they are not 
the thorns of Jesus’ Passion; rather are they stings 
of wounded feelings. We go about foolishly de¬ 
luding ourselves, and striving to delude others, into 
thinking that we are greatly injured beings, seek¬ 
ing sympathy for imaginary injuries, rousing im¬ 
proper feelings in those who pity us. 

Ah, how foolish we are! Why do we deceive 
ourselves! Why not let the Good Shepherd extri- 


20 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


cate us from the entangling bushes in which we 
have been caught as we strayed from the high 
road, the level path of perfection? We are led 
into the byways by taking the wrong direction. 
The signpost is very clear for we have our Rule, 
the living Rule and the written Rule, but we fol¬ 
low our own way or some will-o-the-wisp. Then 
we do not like to retrace our steps; are afraid to 
admit to ourselves or others that we had made a 
mistake; hesitate to acknowledge it even to our 
dear Lord Himself and so, full of our own con¬ 
ceit, we would not have our wounds dressed nor 
the thorns picked out. 

We are inclined to think we are suffering for 
God’s Love, but if we are willing to persuade our^ 
selves in this manner we can not persuade others 
for the most imperfect soul can tell the difference 
between the imaginary sufferings of falsely 
wounded feelings, and the saintly patience of those 
who go hand in hand with God. 

Dear Sisters in Jesus, we who teach others, and 
perhaps speak eloquently at times to the souls that 
cross our path concerning the strayed sheep or the 
prodigal son, might sometimes apply with profit 
our own words to ourselves. We have strayed, 
perhaps oftener than we know, from the narrow 
path of rectitude that led to the mountain top of 
perfection. We have, no doubt, wasted the treas¬ 
ures entrusted to us; those spiritual goods far more 
valuable than gold or precious stones. We must 
not say we may have strayed for we know we have. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


21 


We have all had sufficient graces given us to make 
us saints, therefore as we are not saints it is evident 
we have lost many graces. God entrusted us with 
priceless heavenly gifts which we neglected. 

Here is food for humility! Here let us stop to 
humble ourselves! Here let us despise ourselves 
more and more, until we have almost penetrated 
into the nothingness from which we sprang! 

Let us now penetrate into the depth of sin and 
ignorance in which we were born; the coldness and 
changeableness of our nature in its present state; 
our lack of correspondence to God’s graces, and we 
shall find ample reasons for humbling ourselves and 
greatly changing our attitude to God. 

A strong foundation is necessary for every 
structure. Perhaps we know that the foundations 
of our spiritual lives are not sufficiently secure. 

Dear Sisters, as we penetrate deeper into the 
Mind of God, and view His conception of a Spouse 
of Christ, with all its powers and privileges, with 
the rich prerogatives, the supernal graces attached 
to the state, we shall need to remember what we 
are, and strive to realize what God intends us to 
be. Here we must stay awhile abasing ourselves in 
the thought of how little we have corresponded 
with the will of God in our behalf, for, if we had 
humbled ourselves and used punctiliously the means 
of holiness offered to us, in the religious state, by 
Holy Mother Church, the Incarnate Word would 
now be nestling in our souls with rapturous love. 


22 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Consider the Eternal Word becoming Man and 
taking human nature to Himself! Where does the 
Word become Incarnate? “The Word was made 
Flesh and dwelt amongst us.” This is the great 
answer given in Holy Writ. Jesus came on earth to 
seek and save that which was lost; to regenerate 
mankind; to restore fallen nature; poor fallen na¬ 
ture that blights God's Work so easily, and the only 
home Jesus asks on this earth is our human hearts. 

In our poor way we understand all this. We 
love to be near those we love. All perfection con¬ 
sists in union with Jesus, and, Dear Sisters, how 
far are we advanced in that perfection? How do 
we keep Dear Jesus with us in thought, in word 
and in deed? Are we really united in heart and 
soul with our Love? What does it mean? It means 
thinking as He thought, doing deeds that He did, 
and walking in His steps. What are we in religion 
for if not for this? 

We are going to look at our position in God's 
Church squarely. We are going to meditate again 
and again upon its dignity; the office of the Bride 
of Christ in God's Church; her power and her priv¬ 
ilege, nay, even more, her rights; and we want to 
look upon all this in a new light, and the way to 
attract God’s Light, God's Grace, God's Holy Spirit, 
is by humbling ourselves before Him. We have 
enough to humble ourselves, if only in this one 
thought, that if we had corresponded with all God's 
Graces, we should be now living Saints, such as 
those eight, who the Cure of Ars was told would 
convert the world if that many could be found. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


23 


Again, dear Sisters, by our neglect of Grace 
and our infidelities we may be hindering souls 
from being saved, instead of keeping this beautiful 
world from sin. We might have had a great part 
in its conversion, but our selfishness has hindered 
us from corresponding with God’s Grace, and we 
may indeed say that we are unprofitable servants. 
What profit have we brought to Our Lord for the 
talents He has given us? We have squandered 
them or hidden them in a napkin, or lost them 
through negligence. One thing is certain, that 
the best of us have not always used them well for 
the purpose that they were given. At least let us 
now do the one thing we can: humble ourselves. 
Be truthful with God and ourselves, and thus 
humbled and contrite, our souls will grow pure 
and have a beauty that will attract Dear Jesus to 
them. 

“My God! I promise Thee that from this hour 
all that I have is thine.” Then the sweet Voice 
of Jesus will speak again to your soul as It spoke 
years before, but with a new meannig, “My Child, 
give Me thy heart!” We gave Him when we 
thought He asked us, our bodies, if we may express 
it. We gave him our personal liberty. We would 
live here or there, wherever obedience called us, 
and do the work obedience gave us, but we did not 
see that obedience was not all, not half, indeed, 
that Dear Jesus asked of us. “My child, give me 
thy Heart.” It was our hearts God asked from the 
center of our being. “My God, I gave Thee my 
heart,” we responded. 


24 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Let us see, Dear Sisters, if we have kept our 
compact. Peer out into the eternal aeons before 
the creation. What was God’s conception of us? 
We cannot comprehend it. We find it impossible 
with, our puny minds to enter into the Omniscient 
Intelligence of God, and, consequently find our¬ 
selves before It so poor, so weak, so unworthy of 
God’s notice as we do in our commune with the 
Sacred Heart, that we are glad to think of the thou¬ 
sands of loving Souls who love our Lord better 
than we do. Abashed, we hide ourselves away 
from His notice but we rejoice in His immeasurable 
loveliness and in the innumerable souls who love 
Him. Then it is He seems more lovable than ever. 
He is the kind Host at the Feast searching out each 
visitor, welcoming each and not letting the least 
remain unnoticed. 

Jesus, God and Man, has each of us before Him 
in a way that none but the Great Creator could have 
thought and known, with a love that human mind 
cannot fathom and human heart cannot feel. 

Daily the Spouse of Jesus increases her love of 
her Lord, for all that she sees of good in those 
around her she knows has first sprung from the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus. Without this love of Jesus 
we cannot keep to our high state. Without it our 
souls would be made void. If we attempted to give 
up all earthly love without replenishing our hearts 
with the Divine flame, they will fill up with self- 
love alone. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


25 


It is wise to try to increase our love of God by 
all means possible, especially by the thought of 
God’s everlasting love for us. All love is a faint 
shadow of that Infinite Love from which we came, 
and to which we go. It is this love that created us, 
that watches over our every act, that preserves our 
beings every instant. We have come from God, we 
are creatures of God. We are creatures of Love. 
We must love nothing terrestial only in and for 
God. Is this easy? Indeed it is not. We are of 
the earth and we gravitate to it, and at times find 
it difficult to soar upwards. Indeed we could not 
do so but for the Grace of God. By His Grace we 
can, and we will, and our earthly instincts shall 
but keep our souls pure because we shall obtain 
humility from them. To the humble God giveth 
Grace for truly He resisteth the proud. 

We might grow proud and think ourselves an¬ 
gelic because of our state, if we were not reminded 
by our natural instincts how quickly we can fall, 
and how easy it is to lose our spirituality. It is 
good for us occasionally to be made to see this, or, 
losing our taste for spiritual things, we should soon 
be looking back to the flesh-pots of Egypt. We 
know this, so let us be convinced of it now, and 
ponder on this thought, breathing a prayer to our 
Guardian Angel. Oh happy soul thus walking on¬ 
ward, looking upward, almost catching the beam¬ 
ing smile of Jesus’ Face encouraging you to climb 
humbly on—on to Him. You who are basking in 
that smile which is the sunshine of your life, thank 
God for the Grace He has given you, but be wisely 


26 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


fearful of losing it, for it can be easily lost. The 
sunshine of your life may burn into shadow; your 
appetite for spiritual things become jaded, and all 
may pall upon you. Yes, this may happen through 
your own fault through some neglect of Grace, some 
unconscious complacency in self. We notice it in 
others when it is quite unseen by themselves. 

We remember one instance of a convert, full of 
Grace, spending hours in the chapel, for prayer was 
her delight, meeting a convert friend who was not 
anxious to be much in the chapel or fond of prayer. 
Our prayerful friend felt really uncharitable to her 
less fortunate neighbor and seemed really to have 
no faith in her. We tried to advise and point out 
reasons for not judging the new convert—her sin¬ 
cerity in making many sacrifices without sensible 
sweetness, but it was of no avail. Not many months 
afterwards conditions changed. The second con¬ 
vert in her new found treasure gradually developed 
an appetite for spirituality, while the first lost her 
fervor, and her spiritual life became a series of 
painful efforts. Thus God punished her for her 
rash judgments. 

How good God is in His dealings with us! How 
can we ever thank Him for His care and solicitude 
for us? Let us show we are grateful by our acts, 
by our continual efforts, by ever striving to real¬ 
ize the high ideal God has set before us. Let us 
learn all we can of the perfection of our state. 
We must never think we know enough. What hid¬ 
den heights of beauty there are to climb, and on 
each height perhaps a different virtue is waiting. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


27 


One may be mortified and yet not sufficiently full 
of love for others, not seeing God in those about 
them. Another may love acts of charity, and really 
neglect obedience to perform acts of charity. 
Others may be obedient but not practice it in a 
supernatural way. More may by self attachments 
have forgotten those words: Hearken my daughter 
and incline thy ear, forget also thine own people and 
thy father’s house. And the King shall desire Thy 
beauty for He is the Lord thy God. 

Ah, dear Sisters, when Jesus bound you to Him¬ 
self, when the Blessed Sacrament was held above 
your head and you were bid to look upon your 
Lord—Ecce panem Angelorum—What did you 
promise? You inclined your ear to the voice of 
God. You forgot your people and your father's 
house, though you loved them with a better love 
from that moment. You remembered them no more 
but in God, and you loved the vast human race, 
the family of your Love and said to Him: “Thy 
people shall be my people." Happy moment, or 
rather a sucession of happy moments for the 
happy Bride of this Divine Spouse, who as Jesus 
her Divine Love descends into her breast sinks 
into the Blessed Sacrament and loses herself in 
Jesus' hidden life on earth. Happy Soul, so much 
to be envied! God alone knows the power of His 
Grace in that soul, if found faithful. The Spouse 
of Jesus rises up in grandeur, in greatness, with 
power, with privileges, with rights to live in re¬ 
habilitated innocence, a fair flower of God in a 


28 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


fallen world, an earthly angel with a glorious mis¬ 
sion from high Heaven. 

The Spouse of Jesus has ever to sing and make 
melody in her heart. She is to chant God’s praises 
forever! She is to sing of the glories of God. She 
is to speak teiling words of love, to bring peace on 
earth to men of good will. O happy soul! Go ful¬ 
fill thy mission! Walk this earth leaning on the 
arm of Thy Beloved! Far happier art thou than the 
earthly bride as she walks with the one she has 
chosen for her partner in life! My Jesus, Thou 
hast chosen Thy Own to live Eternal Life. Sisters 
in Religion, of whatever order you may be, you 
are what you are, not alone for time, but for eter¬ 
nity. You have destined for you a place in Heaven 
for all eternity. The Spouse of Jesus of whatever 
Order she may be, is bound to believe and hope 
for the rich reward that is reserved for her if she 
is found faithful. Her reward will be in propor¬ 
tion to the fidelity with which she observed the 
Rules of her own Order. 

Each Community fills the Garden of Jesus with 
beautiful beds of flowers, and every individual 
flower blossoming among its own species adds to 
the fragrance of the cluster in which it is found. 
Thus the Carmelite in much prayer and severe 
penance; the Sister of Charity in heroic deeds of 
mercy; the Little Sister of the Poor in the sweet 
humility with which she serves Christ’s neglected 
ones; the Daughter of the Sacred Heart who in¬ 
structs others to justice. The Sister of the Little 
Company of Mary, in her interior life of union with 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


29 


Jesus and Mary, prayer, and personal assistance 
for the dying, are all spiritual flowers blossoming 
in the Garden of God. One is a rose of love; an¬ 
other a violet of humility; another a lily of daz¬ 
zling purity, all growing in the same rich loam— 
The Sacred Heart of Jesus—yet each with its own 
beauty and fragrance. Contemplating this Garden 
of God we can readily imagine how the flowers 
would droop and wither if they were transplanted 
to a foreign soil. Each is beautiful amidst its own 
surroundings, and only retains its fragrance as long 
as it continues to grow in its own garden. The 
life of the flower is identical with the life of a 
religious. As long as she continues to be humble 
and obedient in the community that God has se¬ 
lected for her, so long will she continue to grow 
in sanctity and fervor. Outside of it she would 
wither away and die. 

Whoever you are, whatever your state, to what¬ 
ever religious Order you may belong, that you will 
be for all eternity. If this is a new thought to you 
do not put it by carelessly, or attach little impor¬ 
tance to it as a theory that may be incorrect or 
fanciful. 

I remember once noticing the startled expres¬ 
sion of one not of the Catholic faith but of a sect 
which, nevertheless, believed in the Resurrection, 
when I remarked, in the course of a conversation 
on that point: ‘‘These identical hands of mine are 
to be one day in heaven, the very same hands that 
now hold this book.” Almost unconsciously I then 
used Job’s words: “They will be my own hands 


30 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


and not another’s.” I was very much surprised at 
the startled look on my listener’s face, especially 
when changed into a sad one, accompanied with 
the words: “Ah, all these things are mysterious.” 
Evidently there was want of faith in her own creed, 
of which she was not aware. 

It is sometimes the same with religious, when 
there is lack of faith in their own Community. 
Many think they can enter any convent and keep 
its Rule. They know they must lead a life of 
prayer and penance, and imagine, therefore, it does 
not much matter which Community is selected. 
Now it is not to be wondered at that many have 
this thought after spending years in religion, but 
when in the Novitiate they were taught what a 
difference there is in the different Orders, and the 
necessity of being perfect according to the Rule 
of our own Community. “You have not chosen 
Me, but I have chosen you,” says Our Divine Lord, 
and consequently each of us should strive earnestly 
to work out our salvation in that particular part of 
God’s garden the Master has selected for us. Be 
thou faithful unto death; and I will give thee the 
crown of life. 


CHAPTER THREE 


The Power of Faith 

“If you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, 
you shall say to this Mountain, Remove from hence 
hither, and it shall remove.” (Matt. XVII, 19.) 
Thanks be to God we have all Faith, but in our 
weakness we do not practice all that our Faith 
teaches. But what is the Faith that moves moun¬ 
tains? The Saints seem to have approached it, but 
we seem to be so far away from it. We have all 
Faith that God can move mountains if He wishes. 
We have not the slightest doubt on that point. We 
know well that God can do all things, for “with God 
all things are possible.” In what then are we 
wanting if we have unbounded faith in God. 

Dear Sisters, I want you to bend all your at¬ 
tention to the fact that the reason so many of our 
religious acts have not the power and efficacy that 
they should, is because we have not sufficient Faith 
in God. We perform our religious acts with a cer¬ 
tain amount of Faith, no doubt with a half-hearted 
hope, and a very weak Charity. We are even, at 
times, heard to say that some exercises do us no 
good. Why is it so? Not because God withholds 
His Grace. Nor from His want of will to give 
Grace to us. It can only be from an inward lack 
of a loving faith in Him. He will have mercy on 
us according to our trust in Him. 


32 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


The same conditions hold with regard to our 
prayers. We sometimes go to prayer with the un¬ 
expressed undercurrent of feeling I am sure God 
will not hear me. This is not right. It does not 
incline the fountain of God’s mercy to open and 
pour out its treasure upon us. Only those who go 
to the various exercises with strong faith and those 
who pray with happy confidence in God will re¬ 
ceive the reward. “Be it done unto thee according 
to thy faith.” Think not that this is a light thought 
to be dwelt upon now for a few minutes, and when 
you go away to be forgotten. If we were in great 
financial distress and were told where much treas¬ 
ure was locked away, subject to the command of 
the one who found the key, would it not be a pity 
if we could not locate it? It is just as great a pity 
that we have lost the key which would unlock 
God’s treasures to us. That key is a loving hopeful 
Faith in God. 

We go dryly through our exercises, finding that 
we do not advance, or derive much Grace from 
them. We allow a hazy thought to pervade our 
minds that it must be someone else’s fault that our 
religious exercises have so little effect upon us. If 
we would only go with a firm Faith, with a loving 
belief that these exercises are of God’s inspiration, 
we would receive much light from them, we would 
advance in Grace, and our minds would become 
stronger in Faith. If it be true that our prayers 
and exercises do us little good, then it is because 
of this want of trust in God, or our lack of Faith. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


33 


Let us learn that we are to do our part as well 
as God. How shall we alter our conduct? What 
is the next exercise we are going to? Suppose it 
is a spiritual conference. Let us beg the blessing 
God has in store for us upon this exercise which is 
one of the Institutions God has ordained in relig¬ 
ious houses. Then we should have faith that God 
has reserved for us a Grace in this exercise, and 
proper participation in it will fill us with the glad 
Hope of partaking in that particular Grace. 

It should be so with Chapter. We must hope 
that the particular Grace will be obtained if we 
enter with fitting dispositions. If it is a Chapter 
of Faults, we should certainly obtain an increase 
in humility; if it is a Chapter of Council, we must 
hope that God would give us light, after having 
invoked our Mother of Good Counsel. 

We may have a certain amount of humility 
about us that may truthfully show us how little 
light we have, but on the other hand, we should 
not be cast down, but strengthen our faith in the 
thought that God has blessed this Religious Func¬ 
tion and instituted it in religious houses. He will 
likewise assist and give us the light that our un¬ 
aided intellects can never attain. We may dread 
a Visitation, but we should not. On the contrary, 
if we had Faith and Hope that God’s Grace would 
visit us, according to our Faith, it would be done 
to us. 

Oh! how we should thirst for God’s Grace! 
With what zeal should we preserve it, and how we 
should be not only bedewed, but deluged with it. 


34 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


if we possessed the key that would open the Door 
of Divine Grace—a firm hopeful and loving Faith. 
Oh, let us beg it from God. Let us be assured how 
great need we have of Faith and exercise ourselves 
in it. Let us perform act upon act that we may 
obtain it, and offer again and again the firm hopeful 
and loving faith of Mary, Our Blessed Mother, in 
behalf of our own weak imitation. 

Let us examine ourselves. Are we conscious 
how much we need this hopeful Faith? We know 
how much we need it, for we do not run to exer¬ 
cises that we are now convinced would bring us 
much Grace. In the past we have almost sought 
to avoid some exercises, or we have been careless 
about them or have gone through them by routine. 

What shall we do in the present? What shall 
we do in the future? We will hunger and thirst 
after Grace, we will cherish a great hope that God 
will impart much of it to us, if we seek it by the 
means He has appointed. We will reverence all the 
exercises and ordinances of our holy state. Be not 
deceived, dear Sisters, they will bring us closer to 
God and God closer to us. They will bring us 
Grace that we will love and then we will not be so 
doubting and hesitating. We are children of Faith, 
Hope and Love. We will not walk this earth as 
children led by one without will or power to help 
us, but we will work out our salvation sheltered by 
God’s protecting power, so hopeful, so glad, so 
grateful that in eternity we shall have the Special 
glory of those who, in time, worshiped their God 
more trustingly and more lovingly. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


35 


We must not then lose our time or the merit 
of our actions by our want of Confidence in God. 
We will look upon our days in a different light 
hereafter. As we wish to add to the praise we have 
given to Our Lady, and as we desire our lives to 
glorify God for time, and for eternity, we will 
hoard up our spiritual wealth, fearful of losing 
any of Our Lady’s treasures, and by this method, 
which by practice will become easy, we shall soon 
become rich in Grace. 

We do not need to accomplish more exterior 
acts, but rather to put into them more pious dispo¬ 
sitions than they have hitherto had. Then we will 
act, we will suffer, we will pray with a greater 
Faith, Hope and Love. 

In the various works of Charity in which we are 
engaged, we have already a certain hope, that, if 
we do our part, God will bless them and make them 
productive of much good. Strive to accomplish 
these works with absolute Faith that they are 
God’s will, and that therefore there is a great grace 
attached to them. Be not doubtful! God is with 
you in your exercises, and if you trust Him, and 
lean upon Him, He will not withdraw and let you 
fall but He will sustain and strengthen you. 

God knows your weakness better than you know 
it yourself, but have confidence in His Goodness, 
and a ray of light from His mind will illuminate 
yours, or He will make His Will known to you 
through some human means in a marked manner. 

Wherein is it, dear Sisters, that you have most 
doubted God? Is it in temporal or spiritual mat- 


36 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


ters, or both? Endeavor from this to change your 
life and nurture a happy trust and confidence that 
God will surely answer your prayers; that He will 
make known His will to you, for no one has ever 
applied to Him in vain. Know you not that we 
wrong our God by the slightest suspicion of doubt? 

If we still persist in going about our religious 
exercises, sadly and despondently, or carelessly and 
indifferently, with only half a hope that we shall 
derive any profit from them, with a doubting faith 
that God will give us Grace from them, we cannot 
expect that He will contradict what He has said and 
give us in the same bountiful manner as He gives to 
those who fully rely upon Him. Ah no! What has 
been our custom in the past shall not continue in 
the future. We have to perform certain duties, we 
are vowed to them. Then we will accomplish them 
with strong Faith, firm Hope and ardent Charity. 

God will have mercy according to our trust in 
Him. Let this thought be engraven upon our minds 
and hearts, and then all our exercises will take on a 
different attitude. There will be a different relish; 
a greater contentment in performing them; there 
will be less trouble, and better far than all, we shall 
be laying up treasures for Eternity. Ah me! We 
know that too much confidence in one’s self is a 
thing to be abhorred, and those who direct in God’s 
work should not be too assured that what they 
are saying and doing is right. We have a feeling 
of repugnance to those who boast of their own tal¬ 
ents and feel strongly assured of their own judg¬ 
ment, but we must be careful not to fall into the 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


37 


other extreme of too little confidence in ourselves. 
W hen we have not faith in our own powers we have 
not sufficient faith and trust in God. What an un¬ 
happy state are they in, who, knowing their own 
weakness, at the same time, are wanting in the 
Faith and Hope they should have in the promises 
and power of God. 

Sad indeed would be our condition if we had 
promised God certain things, relying on our own 
powers, and ignoring God’s Grace. Sad, indeed, 
would it be for us if we were placed in a* certain 
position in God’s vineyard for which we knew we 
were unfit, and yet had no hope that God would 
help us. Oh, if we had that Faith in God what 
great things would we not be able to do for Him! 
Ah, if we had less confidence in ourselves, and 
more trust in God, then should we be able to work 
with an Apostolic Zeal, then should we value the 
time in which we could work with great deeds for 
God’s glory. 

Because we have not striven to obtain this won¬ 
derful insight to God’s Grace in all the circum¬ 
stances of our spiritual Life we are poor when we 
might have been rich; our works are fruitless for 
want of Faith in our good God’s desire to help us. 

Let us turn to the Mother of our Holy Faith; 
the Virgin proclaimed Blessed because she believed. 
We know our Faith is weak, but let us use the 
Faith of the Mother most Faithful. Let us ask her 
to offer for us her heart of Faith. In all the acts 
in which we know we have been so wanting hitherto, 
let us offer to Jesus His Mother’s virtues to supply 


38 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


for us. The Faith and Hope of the Mother ot 
Jesus will be in her children if they humbly ask her 
to supply for their deficiencies. We will ask our 
holy Mother to strengthen our Faith now, today 
and tomorrow, this month and next month. We will, 
likewise, ask Jesus to regard not us, but to see His 
Mother in us, and for her dear sake to supply our 
deficiencies, and bless us and our works. May these 
thoughts be seeds well sown so that they will 
bring forth fruit a hundredfold! 

Remember, dear Sisters, you are not powerless, 
but most powerful, if you work with Faith. So we 
will work, and living by Faith and Hope, we will 
die, please God—Victims of Love, hoping for the 
heaven promised to those who are faithful to the 
end. Ah, with what fresh vigour, please God, we 
will go to our next work, whatever it may be! We 
may have to attend an obstinate sinner, or to decide 
an important matter, but will go filled with Faith 
in our work, Charity towards the one we assist, and 
Hope in the good God for whom we labor. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


Trust in God 

Dear Sisters, have we sought God? Some great 
danger threatens us, heavy trials have gathered 
round us, there seems to be no escape from our diffi¬ 
culties, but God knows the way. He will deliver 
us from these afflictions; He will lead us out of 
danger if we will but trust in Him. We shall feel 
His Hand in the darkness if we confide in Him. 
Oh, let us clasp His Hand now in Faith, Hope and 
Love. Whom are we fearing? For what are we 
troubling? The storms may arise; human nature 
may shrink; but the words spoken by the Incarnate 
Word must ring forever in our ears. Why are ye 
fearful, Oh ye of little Faith? 

Let us ask ourselves now whether we are in 
darkness or in light upon the Good Providence of 
Our God by an act of unreserved confidence. Let 
it be a firm irrevocable act, and sweet indeed will 
life become to us. We shall love the time given to 
us in which we can perform such great works, such 
glorious deeds for God. In time we can do one 
thing that we cannot do in eternity, namely, believe 
and hope and trust in our God, for in the life to 
come Faith is transformed into knowledge, hope 
into realization and charity into love. We are mak- 


40 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


ing the act now, not a sentimental one, but a real 
substantial act by which we give ourselves unre¬ 
servedly into the hands of Divine Providence, 
through the hands of our Lady, our Mother of 
Holy Hope. How shall we prove that it is not a 
sentimental act; how make it a practical act? In 
times when we are inclined to be troubled, to be 
over-anxious, we will think of the compact we have 
made and remember that by it we have cast our¬ 
selves unreservedly, once for all, into the Arms of 
Divine Providence, and if we doubt, we should be 
breaking this compact. We would be struggling 
from the embrace of the Divine arms. We must 
make a fresh act of Faith and Hope. We must 
nestle closer to this home, the bosom of God’s 
Providence, offering again and again the heroic Hope 
of God’s Saints, of the Holy Martyrs, and above 
all of the Queen of Saints and of Martyrs, our 
own Mother Mary will supply for our weak Hope, 
and whilst we are thus praying our anxiety will be 
lightened, peace will be restored to our troubled 
souls and God will be glorified. Yes, the Almighty 
God will be glorified by the trust and confidence 
of His weak little creature. The weak child 
of earth rests on the All Powerful with unbounded 
confidence, with peace unknown to so many of 
God’s creatures. The hopeful loving child of earth 
has indeed found a home on earth, or shall we 
call it a life-boat on the stormy sea of time, where 
she can be assured of safety, guided by the strong 
arm of the great Pilot. Oh! How God loves that 
child of earth whose Hope corresponds to her Faith. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


41 


It has such a different attitude from those who 
possess Faith, but not hopeful Faith; their attitude 
to their God, their Beneficent Creator is so different 
from His children who run to Him with the 
childlike simple love of the children of Hope. They 
seem afraid of their God as we are of one who is 
pitiless and unmerciful; they act as though He were 
a tyrant and not a tender loving Father. They 
have Faith but if it could be expressed in words 
their creed would be I believe God could do so and 
so for me. I know He can. I have Faith in Him, 
but I do not believe He will. According to their 
hope it shall be done to them. 

I will have mercy on them according to their 
trust in Me. Well it is for us that the good God 
does not always thus measure His Benefits, but 
when He has given again and again unexpected 
favours, how often we forget to thank Him; forget 
to acknowledge them. Thus it has been with us, 
O God in the past, but with Thy Help it shall not 
be so in the future! We wish to commence a new 
life—a brave beautiful life! We are buoyed up 
now with a new Hope that we had not hitherto 
possessed. As we consider now that Hope is good 
for us, we are also reminded that it is glorious to 
God. Hope casts a radiance about us. Others will 
wonder and might ask, Whence is this joy which 
seems to permeate you? We might truthfully an¬ 
swer, “We have found the Key to a great Treasure. 
Immense riches and rare graces.” 

What are we saying? We possess indeed all 
that the human heart can desire. Surely there is no 


42 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


limit to what the Creator will give if there is no 
limit to the trust ©f the creature. Henceforth then, 
our Mother shall decorate Her little flock with a 
badge of Holy Hope when this special mark shall 
be upon them, the radiance of God’s countenance 
will shine round them and brighten their lives so 
that they seem creatures of another world. We 
have met some of these souls and they seemed crea¬ 
tures of a higher life. Attached rather to Heaven 
than to earth, their strength of soul was great be¬ 
cause they were nurtured from on high. They 
needed no earthly support; they leaned upon their 
God. 

Creatures fail, but God never fails. Those who 
lean upon Him have indeed an unbending sup¬ 
port. They cannot fall, because He will not permit 
them to do so for never was it known that the All 
Holy God of all Perfection—the faithful one—the 
Governor and supporter of all things—ever betrayed 
the trust the creature placed in Him. When we 
have placed ourselves in the arms of Divine Provi¬ 
dence by this act of oblation and having cast our¬ 
selves on this Infinite ocean of Love, we will re¬ 
solve not to mar its beauty for we have done so 
knowing Our God has care of us. Having sown 
the seeds, as it were, by this solemn dedication and 
consecration of ourselves, we have now to watch 
the little plant that may appear so that it may 
bring forth flowers and fruit. It is a beautiful stroke 
of the chisel towards the perfection of that work 
we are daily fashioning to the likeness of Our Grand 
Model. It will form a new spirituality within us, 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 43 

not the act itself, but the living up to it in the cor¬ 
responding actions which follow. 

Its beauty will not be shown in smooth peace¬ 
ful times when it is comparatively easy to hope 
and trust in God, but when the days are dark, when 
clouds obscure the bright light of the Sun of Jus¬ 
tice, then it is we shall honor Our God by trust in 
Him. 

Yes—Though He slay me still will I trust in Him 
—must be the cry of the soul that has anchored 
itself firmly to Divine Hope. Ah, what need of this 
Divine Hope have we not, in these days, when the 
Tempest-tossed Church, with its banners boldly un¬ 
furled, is tossed on the rude waves of a sea of in¬ 
difference and unbelief. Even the crew of the good 
ship need to trust in Divine Power for they see how 
truly vain is the help of man. Ah, they are a brave 
crew and grow braver in these times of trial. The 
world is fearful, distrustful, one dreads another, but 
Christians gather round the Sacred Heart and bind 
themselves more closely together by means of con¬ 
fraternities and communities. God’s spirit is re¬ 
newed within them and they are happy in the hour 
of trial, confident that God can and will help them. 

If, indeed, the Church is tried, so are the works 
of the Church, such as Religious Communities, 
Foundations and individual members. All are tried 
in some way, but all are safe if they trust their God. 
Perhaps there are some suffering at this moment 
from one of the worst human woes—Fear? Ah! 
Look up poor suffering one. See Jesus coming to 
you. His words are seemingly a reproach, but His 


44 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


look is kind. Why dost thou doubt, O thou of little 
Faith. The tones are tender and gentle hands are 
stretched out to lift you from the depths of despair. 
Let Jesus lift you up then. Trust Him and throw 
yourself upon Him. 

Here let us pause, and ponder, making our reso¬ 
lutions. Jesus has hold of me. I am united to Him. 
He will act in me if I hope and trust in Him. I 
must remind myself of this many times a day, in 
the different occurrences of the day, in the various 
events of my Religious Life. I must renew the 
union of my soul with Jesus. Thus I shall derive 
grace from every exercise, for by faith I know the 
various exercises in Religion are meant to 
strengthen the soul, to help it to keep in this union 
with God, which is such a Glory to Him, and such 
an honor and happiness to the little creature. 

It is a responsibility, yes, and a great risk, for 
to keep in the lofty heights of the spiritual life is 
not easy. Foolish they are who, when first enter¬ 
ing and tasting the freshness and sweetness of the 
Spiritual life, and reading what the Saints have 
written of the loveliness of the mystical union of the 
soul with God, and who having been drawn by our 
dear Lord’s call to give up all things to follow Him, 
think that this sweetness is always going to con¬ 
tinue and that there are to be no more bitter things 
in their life. They may have always the joy of con¬ 
tentment, but only if they fight the good fight. 
There must come things that seem hard and it would 
be unwise not to prepare for them. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


45 


Witness His first disciples who because they 
thought His sayings concerning His flesh and blood 
hard and difficult, walked no more with Him, though 
they had followed Him for a long time. Ah no! 
As we climb the dizzy heights, a prudent dread of 
ourselves and our own weakness should not be 
wanting to us. Look at the saintly Father Faber, 
a man who seems to have made himself so one with 
God that he speaks of the heights of sanctity with 
bated breath and tells us how the thin pure air of 
holiness is an atmosphere in which human beings 
can scarcely exist. Here will Hope come to our Aid 
and our Hope being holy will also be humble. We 
will repeat again and again, I can do all things. Yes 
—in Him who strengthens me. It is for want of 
this trust in God that there are so many wrecks in 
the spiritual life, so many failures. Our youthful 
minds, pliant and fervent, are moulded to love vir¬ 
tue and to hate vice. We mean to be good, very 
good, and we do not comprehend being daunted. 
We are full of courage and confidence, but what 
confidence? Is it not more confidence in self than 
in God? We hasten on with the vigour of youth, 
perhaps more natural vigor than supernatural grace, 
but at last we come to a halt. We have arrived at 
that point where our natural strength and courage 
could not take us farther. Now it seems perfectly 
hopeless to strive after the higher things we had 
once intended. Now nature cannot go on! It is 
perfectly true that the help of man is vain in many 
a crisis of our lives. We have been so accustomed 
to rely upon ourselves and others that it is not 


46 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


easy now to lean our whole strength upon God. We 
are fearsome, and having no courage we decline 
more to earthly things; a habit that grows with 
age. When the romance of youth is over, and we 
do not still aim at high things in the Spiritual life 
as we formerly did, we begin to think it is not nec¬ 
essary—that we can save our souls without any 
special help, and so we become of the earth—earth¬ 
ly. We become lukewarm and we lose that con¬ 
tent we once had and the beauty of life fades from 
us. Ah! If any of us are now near this state let 
us rise up out of ourselves, let us cry with the great¬ 
est humility to our God to send us help. We are 
nothing! We said this once, and now we know 
it, and our very truthfulness will incline God 
towards us. Our hope in Him will touch His Heart, 
and having thrown ourselves wholly and entirely 
upon His Divine Providence, trusting in His Omni¬ 
potence, our first vigor will be renewed and we 
shall know Our God better and love Him more than 
we ever did before. 

Thus the great work of perfection will go on and 
we shall scarcely know ourselves. The working of 
God’s spirit within us will bring such light. The 
old things will pass away. We are now indeed as 
giants, for we are upheld by Divine Power. Ah 
My God grant this. Grant that our act of conse¬ 
cration to Thy Divine Providence may be no sim¬ 
ple act. In the next trial that may come across our 
lives instead of relying upon self, as we have hith¬ 
erto so often done, we will turn quickly to our God 
and ask His help to extricate us from the difficulties 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


47 


which His Providence has permitted to prove our 
fidelity and strengthen our trust and Hope in Him. 
We will thus be true to God and faithful to our 
promises, and the Benediction of the Most High 
will rest over us during these fleeting moments of 
time, and God will look upon us with ineffable com¬ 
placency in this life and He will fold us in the arms 
of His Divine Providence and His everlasting love 
in Eternity. 


CHAPTER FIVE 


Blessed Obedience 

It is easy, Dear Sisters, to miss the beauty of re¬ 
ligious life, for its whole beauty is founded on 
order. If we disarrange this order we spoil lives 
devoted to God, that would be most beautiful in 
His Light if they are lived according to the spirit 
and letter of the Rule. Ah, we are foolish indeed 
to be like Martha ‘‘troubled about many things/’ 
instead of sitting like Mary peacefully at Jesus’ 
feet. In Religious life one of the most dangerous 
stumbling blocks is want of charity for others. 

There are some Religious who are most re¬ 
spectful, dutiful and kind when someone they per¬ 
sonally love is in office, but who fail signally, and 
show their want of religious spirit when their loved 
one is removed, or a stranger is appointed as Supe¬ 
rior. Dear Sisters, Children of my heart, I would 
write it with blood if it would make a deeper im¬ 
pression, you owe filial love and obedience to any 
member of the Community given the responsibility 
of Superior. Her appointment is God’s Holy Will, 
made for your salvation and the perfection of the 
work in which God delights. You must respect that 
high office. Love the person in position as much 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


49 


as you can, it is well; but if your natures do not 
assimulate and you cannot have a sensible love, you 
must, at least, always obey. To love the person 
who commands is a help for it makes obedience 
easy, but it is a hindrance also, if with the natural 
we do not unite the supernatural motive. We shall 
be bright lights burning in the darkness of the 
world, if this holy discipline, this true religious 
spirit is observed. 

The spirit of all Evil will indeed strive to hinder 
this perfect obedience by rousing a spirit of dis¬ 
respect, of discontent, of criticism, thereby marring 
the beauty of God's work. A command may some¬ 
times be given which may not be the most perfect, 
but it would be a still greater imperfection in the 
one to whom it is given if she murmurs, criticises, 
or is discontented. She is spreading a blot on God’s 
work by her irreligious spirit. The Superior may 
have been wanting in judgment, but there is noth¬ 
ing wrong in that as none of us always do the 
perfect thing. The wrong is in the great imperfec¬ 
tion and probably sin shown by the unreligious 
spirit of the Sister who would criticise the Superior 
placed over her. How easy it is to become unchar¬ 
itable or contentious! Oh! So easy! Unguarded 
expressions sometimes show us that a Sister is on 
the point of tepidity in the spiritual life. 

As I contemplate the Sisters with a cheerful 
spirit, at the Voice of Obedience going here and 
there to their various works, the words come to my 
mind, She is sent! Suppose a shadow clouds her 


50 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


countenance when an order is given, perhaps even 
a murmur muttered, how the picture would be 
marred! 

The Sister who has been ungenerous, selfish—is 
she happier? Was anyone ever happier when they 
had been selfish or ungenerous? Selfishness, or 
want of generosity, are bad enough, but there are 
worse evils—murmuring and discontent. Immersed 
in them we are in direct opposition to our state of 
obedience, consequently we are in direct opposi¬ 
tion to God. 

My God, my God, I look up yearningly to Thee. 
I love only Thee. Thou art my All in All! We 
have cried this prayer, Dear Sisters, to our God! 
We meant it then, repeat and reiterate it now, 
though in an evil hour we might have forgotten. 
May God pity us for indeed we are sorry. We will 
not again mar and blot God’s work. Hereafter we 
will not do the work of the evil one, but we will 
labor all for God. We will be true religious in God’s 
house, zealously doing all in our power for His 
honor and Glory, not complaining, but mourning 
and grieving as a Spouse of Jesus should at what 
we find is not in accord with God’s Holy Will. 

There is not a place in the world where there 
is no evil. Our Lord’s own words tell us that it is 
impossible that scandals should not be, though at 
the same time He says—“Woe to the world because 
of scandals! For it must needs be that scandals come : 
but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal 
cometh.” (Mat. 18-7.) We must likewise remember 
that there are times when some are scandalized with- 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


51 


out a just cause. But why are we bringing these 
points forward? It is to remind all religious of 
their duty in God’s House, Obedience, blind and 
simple obedience is their portion. They are not to 
regard the person who commands or question the 
commands given. Even the most humble subject, 
however, should be able to understand that, if at 
any time Superiors should contradict one another, 
the vow of Obedience binds them to the higher Su¬ 
perior. This does not often occur, thank God, for 
Superiors are as a rule most anxious to carry out 
all the wishes of their higher Superior. It is the 
duty of every Religious to help and support who¬ 
ever may be placed in Office, with every mark of 
respect and love. Put yourself in the Superior’s 
place. You might have the very best will in the 
world to do your duty to those in your charge, but 
how would you feel if those Sisters, placed with 
you, watched your movements in order to criticise 
you, and, if instead of excusing any faults of inex¬ 
perience or those that might arise from the strange¬ 
ness of the new position, seemed more inclined to 
expose them merely through a lack of charity? A 
true religious spirit cultivates respect for those in 
Office, and, indeed, this virtue is one of the most 
pleasing to God. 

Zeal for God’s house should induce us to incite 
all around us to this respect of Office. Even in 
worldly Institutions it would only be in a disor¬ 
derly and irregulated place where respect is not 
observed for the officers. My Sisters, I beg you 
to show respect for your Superiors. You have not 


52 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


to criticise their actions; you have simply to obey. 
Stop the discontent and murmuring instantly; crush 
the temptation at the beginning; after-remedies may 
come too late. Look back now and do not hide 
from yourselves when you have been wrong. We 
may even have influenced others who have been 
affected by this sad plague of insubordination hate¬ 
ful everywhere, but much more detestable in a re¬ 
ligious house. 

But we will not look only at one side. Let us 
turn now to the other. How happy we are when 
in simplicity we are cheerfully and generously obey¬ 
ing for love of Jesus and in imitation of Him. Let 
us look back at our Novitiate instructions. We 
were warned there that, if we were told to do some¬ 
thing even if we knew a better way, we should obey 
the command given. We should imitate Our Lord, 
who must have known what to do so much better 
than St. Joseph, and yet we cannot doubt that He 
listened humbly to the directions given Him. In 
our Novitiate days we performed our acts of obedi¬ 
ence unquestioningly. How many acts of obedience 
do we thus perform now? Ah, how easy it is to 
miss the beauty of religious life, not from a bad 
will, but from sheer negligence! God will hold all 
accountable for want of putting into practice what 
they have been taught. Let us begin again. This 
very month let us offer a bouquet of spiritual 
flowers to Our Sweet Mother. Let it be composed 
of acts of blind obedience, bound round with true 
humility. Blind obedience perfects us in our holy 
state, especially if we are prompted by the love of 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


S3 


Jesus—who was obedient unto death even unto the 
death of the Cross. Christ’s oblation was not easy 
sweet obedience, but rather blind obedience, for it 
was the will of His Heavenly Father that He should 
suffer shame and contempt even unto the end. 
When He was reviled, He reviled not. He was lead 
as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
the shearers He was dumb. These are not words 
to merely be heard, but to be taken to heart so that 
when we go away, we may put them into practice. 
Those who are obedient to death, even the death of 
the Cross, will receive the crown of life when they 
meet Jesus, their Spouse, in an Eternal Embrace. 
Obedience is the very essence of religious life. A 
religious is one bound. To be obedient we must 
be mortified. Without obedience we are failures in 
God’s sight. We repeat these things over and over 
again, Dear Sisters, but we know how much our 
lives are subject to changes, variety of occupations 
and work occupies our time and makes us forget 
many things that we have been told over and over 
again. 

It has been said that some Sisters have an easier 
Novitiate than others and therefore their minds are 
freer to remember the lectures they received. 
Others, more tried, found it more difficult to under¬ 
stand and absorb the points of the lectures. Their 
interior trials and struggles hindered them. Their 
minds were more bent upon themselves, and if 
questioned they would be found not to have fully 
understood what had been said. Others forget eas- 


54 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


ily, so we must, for many reasons, repeat the same 
things again and again. 

Every Professed Sister is a Mother before God, 
whether she has the title or not. She has to be the 
fruitful Spouse of Jesus, and she must bring His 
Spirit to bear upon the souls around her. The Holy 
Ghost makes use of her in order that Jesus might 
grow in the souls of many creatures. The Sister 
must not keep her talents hid in a napkin. Jesus 
gives her graces to use for others, and the punish¬ 
ment is severe on the sterile spouse of Jesus. Yes, 
there is even punishment for what she does not do 
that she might have done. Let us then be on the 
lookout to accomplish our Mother’s work. 

Every soul we come in contact with we must 
influence for good. We can hardly forget the sinner 
that must be brought to repentance, yet there are 
the good we must strive to make better, and in 
whom we must increase the longing to be perfect. 
Such labor is our duty, not a work of supereroga¬ 
tion, and by the fulfilment of it we shall save our 
immortal souls. In the world we, perhaps, did 
many acts of charity. We may have prompted others 
to join confraternities or we may have striven in 
other ways to lead souls to God. These were works 
of supererogation. We were not obliged to do them. 
They were not our manifest duty. Not so with us 
now. Having been called to a special service by a 
good and great Master, Our Dear Lord Himself, it 
is our bounden duty to build up the Kingdom of 
God in the minds and hearts of those among whom 
we labor. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


55 


Ah! look back and see the many duties you have 
left undone. Sometimes it appears that Sisters try 
to slip through their religious life with as little 
discomfort to themselves as possible. They do not 
want to trouble themselves. It may be that they 
are not conscious of this failing. If they knew how 
very selfish they were, they would surely battle 
strongly against it, as they are seemingly unaware 
of their unenviable condition, they go on from year 
to year, neglecting part of their service to the good 
God. These Sisters take advantage of their posi¬ 
tion for they use the privileges of the spiritual life 
for themselves alone. They forget that their tal¬ 
ents, their graces were given to them for the good 
of others besides themselves. 

What should we think of one who having been 
given money for the poor spent it on herself? This 
is exactly what they do, who, living in a commu¬ 
nity, founded to save souls, are not unselfish and 
zealous in their work, but use their graces only for 
their own good. Sisters of such a type may save 
their own souls but they wfill not help others to do 
so. They grow into selfish beings, and are no more 
like a generous, devoted Spouse of Jesus than a 
Pharisee was like an Apostle. Exteriorly they may 
not be disedifying; they may love to be punctual; 
they may do their duties carefully, just as many 
worldly people acquit themselves of their social 
duties, but the burning zeal for souls, the heroic self- 
forgetfulness, the extreme generosity and the Christ- 
like self-oblation are wanting in them. My Sisters! 
I beg you not to relax! Spur yourselves on! Be 


56 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


not deceived by any specious reasoning such as: “I 
must take care of my health for the Community’s 
sake, must be prudent for Religion’s sake, yes, but 
be careful to be at all times zealous.” Happy for 
us if we injure our health under obedience or even 
shorten our lives through zeal for God. Indeed we 
might lawfully pray to God to grant us the great 
gift of self-oblation. “I wish no higher death than 
one through obedience and zeal, if Our Dear Lord 
would grant it to one so unworthy how privileged 
should I feel.” Sweet Jesus! Inspire Thy chil¬ 
dren that they imbibe Thy Spirit, Thy desires, Thy 
wishes, all the holy emanations of Thy Sacred 
Heart! Living, may they live for Thee! Dying, 
may they die for Thee! 

Dear Sisters, we can have no surer sign that 
we are living by the sweet spirit of Jesus and Mary, 
and being a delight to the Eternal Father, than that 
we are zealous and obedient. 

I am wandering from my subject, namely obedi¬ 
ence, in the desire I have to urge you to greater zeal 
for souls, for our poor dying, and greater love for 
the vast family committed to our care, and I beg you 
to be more zealous in engaging others to unite with 
us in assisting our many works. But perhaps I am 
not really digressing for in being more devoted, and 
more untiring in your efforts, you are being more 
perfectly obedient; and this obedience will make 
you a perfect religious, which is what your Mothers 
on earth desire and which is still more desired by 
your Holy Mother in heaven. How that Dear Holy 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


57 


Heart of Mary desires to see her daughters per¬ 
fected in the state in which she has placed them! 

Sisters now and then write from a distance ask¬ 
ing a general permission to undertake some work. 
Perhaps it takes too long to get individual permis¬ 
sions. All well and good, but we do not recommend 
this, for how much better, even if there is some de¬ 
lay, to obtain the blessing of obedience on each par¬ 
ticular request. You may understand the work 
better than your Superior, and know she cannot 
advise you how to do it. No! but she can give you 
a greater help than the most clever advice, namely, 
the blessing of obedience, with its miraculous 
power. Dear Sisters, impress this thought well 
upon your minds, that no one can give you this 
blessing but your Mother—the one who is your 
Head. The members of each house receive the 
blessing of obedience from the head of that house, 
and the various Superiors obtain the blessing of 
obedience from the Mother of the Head House— 
The Mother-House as it is called because it is the 
Mother of all the others. It is from the Mother- 
House that the Foundations are to draw their life 
and strength. The other houses like dutiful chil¬ 
dren must turn to it for obedience, council and en¬ 
couragement; and those who are wise will never 
wish to escape from this happy holy union with 
their head. The branch that ceases to be nurtured 
by the sap of the Mother-tree will be lopped off 
and presently will wither away. May God avert 
such an evil from us! May our Sisters ever be un¬ 
selfishly seeking God and His Will alone, for it is 


58 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


self-seeking that ever causes disunion. May God’s 
Holy Spirit be poured upon His Spouses uniting 
them with Its beautiful Spirit of Love for one an¬ 
other. It was Jesus’ own command that He gave 
us from the very depth of His Dear Sacred Heart. 
We will dwell on these words, my dear Sisters, and 
in our thoughts and acts we will breathe out our 
love! We will tinge all we do with this golden 
hue—this reflection of heaven! 

The light of the sun brightens everything it 
falls upon, just as the light of God’s love falling 
upon us will brighten our days and enable us to 
live lives of purest love. 

We commenced by speaking of Obedience and 
we see how it brings love, and all other virtues in 
its train. Thus we must be convinced that the 
beauty of our lives as religious consist in our per¬ 
fect obedience, and then we shall abound in Charity 
and in all virtues that will endear us to our dear 
Lord. Obedience makes us practice a number of 
virtues, and we need to practice them if we are to 
be fruitful to our Spouse. All around us we see 
reasons why we should strive to bear fruit. No one 
cares to behold a tree without flowering branches 
or ripening fruits. Why, then, allow our souls to 
wither and dry up? It is sometimes said, “How can 
I help it? My good desires seem dead. The virtues 
I once possessed are now so difficult to practice.” 
Another says, “I was not born good, how can I 
practice virtues like one naturally good.” Dear Sis¬ 
ters, I can but say one thing, and to deeply impress 
it upon your hearts, I would it were possible to 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


59 


write with my heart’s blood these words—Live by 
Jesus! Jesus My Life! This is the cry of the wise 
soul; the cry of the soul taught by God. We might 
say God inspires her. The Holy Spirit encompasses 
the soul that knows itself to be but sterile earth and 
dry rock, without the life Jesus gives to it. The 
Body and Blood of Jesus is our strength, our very 
life. We can receive only once in the day this life- 
giving sacrament, but hourly, and many times an 
hour, we can and we should take our spiritual life 
from our Dear Lord. We want fervour, we want 
zeal—we have to draw from our Dear Lord. We 
want the spirit of prayer, we want recollection, we 
want to live in the presence of God—we must fly 
to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus and press our¬ 
selves close to Him. We must clothe our naked¬ 
ness with the beauty of that sacred Humanity; and 
all holiness will grow in us. The Blood of Jesus 
penetrates us, His virtues take root in our souls 
almost unconsciously, but also some times con¬ 
sciously a change takes place, and we feeling the 
transformation can at times cry out, “I live now not 
I but Christ liveth in Me.” Gradually this becomes 
our habitual state, and our dear Lord looks with 
love upon the precious fruit of His passion and 
death. His greater content is so unutterably de¬ 
lightful that we have no words in our human lan¬ 
guage to express the bliss of the Sacred Heart in a 
soul thus walking in His Steps. Would that there 
were more walking in this way of perfection. Holy 
Spirit descend, cast fire upon this earth. Enkindle 
a longing desire in the souls of many to ascend those 


60 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


heights of perfection. We tremble as we gaze 
upon them. We could not ascend alone. We must 
have a guide to show us. Who is that mountain 
guide, or rather what is it? It is obedience! 

We cannot look at those mountain tops? We shut 
our eyes! We deliver ourselves to our guide, Holy 
Obedience, and we are safe. We go on step by 
step and the way is easier than we thought, and we 
go on often breathless and weary. We still have 
our eyes closed. When we open them we are dizzy. 
It is better not to look at the City below from 
whence we came, and we must wait the moment 
God has appointed to show us what He has done 
for us. Ah Yes! Let us go on by the safe and sure 
guide. Dear Sisters, we have travelled on and on, 
and we have felt the presence of Our God though 
we have not seen Him. How good God has been 
to us. We sometimes look back over the way we 
came to Religious life, and the days we have spent 
therein, and we can but say: Not unto us, not unto 
us, O God, but to Thee be all glory. There are parts 
of that way we have not walked by Thou hast car¬ 
ried us. Jesus is now with us, or we should not be 
here in His Holy House. We could not have been 
faithful but by His Grace, and having come so far 
will He leave us? Never. We might leave Him but 
the sweet sign that we are in His grace and favour 
is—that we love obedience, that we respect those 
over us and know that we are doing God’s Holy 
Will when we are simply obeying; and obeying for 
love of Jesus. Remembering ever when we are 
obeying our written and living Rule that we are do- 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


61 


ing what the Angels are doing in Heaven—God’s 
Holy Will, and we can do no more than strive to do 
on earth what the Blessed are doing in Heaven. My 
God give light to Thy Children. Let them again 
renew those Blessed Vows, their passport to 
Heaven, and vow and promise in the sight of God’s 
angels, saints and the whole Court of Heaven to be 
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. 
Looking into the Heart of Jesus whom do we find 
deep in its recesses imbibing its spirit? The Obe¬ 
dient Soul, the soul that has no other desire but to 
live to keep the vows which are indeed the blessed 
nails binding her to her God on earth and forming 
her crown for ever in heaven. 


PART TWO 

THE SPOUSE OF JESUS CRUCIFIED 


CHAPTER ONE 

A Bride of Sorrow 

And thy own soul a sword shall pierce! Sweet 
Mother, how often we read the words of this proph¬ 
ecy of holy Simeon! We frequently think of them, 
and believe we think rightly and lovingly, yet the 
day comes when these words have a new meaning. 
We understood them not until now, or we applied 
them only to Thee, Sweet Mother. True, they are 
meant only for Thee, Mother of our crucified 
Saviour, but now Thou dost say them to us, to each 
of thy chosen children: And thy own soul a sword 
shall pierce! 

My dear Sisters, wherever you may be, hear 
these words, repeat them again and apply them to 
yourself: “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce.” 

Oh, my dear Sisters, be brave! Our Lady helps 
her children and keeps them pure and holy as they 
go about doing good in the world. Live then purely 
that the Mother of God may hereafter gaze upon 
you as one of the crucified virgins who followed in 
the footsteps of the Eternal Lamb of God. Yes, this 
is our Holy Mother’s desire, but she has even a 
greater one in store for you. Holy Simeon’s proph¬ 
ecy, so literally fulfilled in her, must be duplicated 
in her children. Their souls must be pierced with 
the sword of sorrow. She is the Queen of Martyrs 
and she must have her own little martyrs band. 
Mary our mother has led the way and we must 
follow in her footsteps. Remember too, my dear 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


63 


Sisters, that it is not the amount of suffering you 
have to bear that will make you Mary’s martyrs, 
but it is the manner in which you suffer. There 
must be no repining, no complaining. With the hu¬ 
mility and patience of Christ, you must seek to 
carry your cross as did He. You may fall again 
and again beneath its burden as did He but you 
will not merit the crown of Eternal life until you 
are crucified with Him on Calvary’s heights. 

All about us we see much suffering. Suffering 
is the chastisement of God that works good in its 
own way. Suffering saves many souls for it keeps 
them from becoming attached to the world. Our 
suffering, however, cannot be compared to the mar¬ 
tyrdom of our holy mother. It is nothing in com¬ 
parison to hers. Rather is it more like that of Dis- 
mas, who was crucified on the right of Jesus, and 
who was saved by Him because of his humble 
prayers. 

When Christ hung dying upon the cross the 
good thief spoke to Him, speaking for himself 
and the one who hung upon the left of Christ, 
“We receive the due reward of our deeds; but this 
man hath done no evil.” And he said to Jesus: 
“Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into 
thy kingdom.” The humility of Dismas was well 
rewarded and his sufferings were sanctified by the 
consoling words of Christ: “Amen I say to thee, 
this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” How 
much better, however, had his prayer nothing of 
self in it? Only the unselfish souls pierced with 
true sorrow caused by a genuine love of God are 


64 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


most worthy of our crucified Saviour. God grant 
that we all may be among such blessed souls! Let 
us begin by being brave and unselfish with our 
lesser trials, so that God may give us the grace to 
bear the greater ones, when his love permits or 
sends them. May we suffer with the spirit of the 
holy martyrs, never pitying ourselves, but content 
to learn what God's good Providence has ordained, 
sweetly patient, gentle and considerate to all, and 
especially when the sword is deepest in our own 
hearts. 

Only by suffering in this manner shall we be 
worthy children of Mary's sword-pierced Heart. 
Only by suffering in this manner shall we comfort 
it. Without this filial sorrow for a mother's suffer¬ 
ing our souls will not be in union with Mary's, and 
if it be true that the disciple is not above his Mas¬ 
ter, but must suffer and be despised with Him, so 
must Mary's children resemble in some degree their 
holy Mother. Let us then, daughters of a suffering 
Mother, see who can be the most sympathetic with 
Mary's sufferings. Standing beneath the cross of 
Calvary, behold thy mother! take her to your arms 
as did St. John and offer her your heart and soul 
to suffer with her, and beg that broken-hearted 
mother whose soul was pierced with seven swords 
of sorrow to strengthen your weak heart to suffer 
with her. Then, when your suffering has been 
turned into joy you will not only be ranked amongst 
the band of virgins who followed in the footsteps 
of the Lamb, wheresoever he goeth, but you will 
be likewise numbered amongst the holy women who 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


65 


stood at the cross her station keeping with a mourn¬ 
ful Mother weeping. Yes, there are some of Mary's 
children who will rank with the holy martyrs, be¬ 
cause they have given their lives spiritually while 
still living physically, in a manner known only to 
the elect. Surely the children who imitate their 
mother. Queen of Martyrs, in this life, will share 
her joy in the life to come. Let us often then, and 
especially in times of sorrow, repeat to ourselves 
these sad but holy words: “And thy own soul a 
sword shall pierce." Keep close, my dear Sisters, 
to the holy Mother who is drawing you to herself 
with so much love. You are the images of Jesus 
to her and, therefore she yearns for your likeness 
to Him. 

The confidence of Mary was not destroyed by 
the crucifixion of Christ. She believed in Him, she 
loved Him. Build up your confidence on the con¬ 
fidence of our holy Mother. How often your con¬ 
fidence is tried by seeming failure, by tribulations 
that appear as hindrances to your perfection. They 
are not hindrances, but they are helps given to try 
your faith and love. They are permitted in order 
to increase your love of God and to make you love 
Him more and more. At times He may have seemed 
to have done less for you than for others. Perhaps 
you think yourself a failure in God's work, or you 
may have even fallen into sin. God may have per¬ 
mitted this for some special reason, and if the sharp 
sword of sorrow piercing your soul makes you cry 
with anguish: “My God, my God, why hast thou for¬ 
saken me?" Yet you must not despair, but with a 


66 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


shadow of Mary’s confidence, try to love and serve 
Him more in the future. It should be your aim to 
purify your love like that of Mary of Magdala, who 
loved Christ so much for His own sake, she who 
had nothing to love in herself. 

Divine grace revealed to Magdalen how unfaith¬ 
ful she had been to God. In her great love for Him. 
however, the thought of herself was utterly blotted 
out, and even her own sinfulness was turned into 
sanctity by the strength and holiness of the Man- 
God before Whose feet she prayed for pardon. 
Christ Himself summed up Magdalen’s perfections 
in those beautiful words, Because she hath loved 
much, much also is forgiven her. We all love God, 
and yet not as Magdalen. And why? Because we 
love God and ourselves also, and we try to please 
ourselves in our love more than we try to please 
God. This is not pure love of God. “J esus meek 
and humble of heart make my heart like unto 
Thine!” Let us try to love Christ with the love 
of Mary Magdalen, that is for His own sake, be¬ 
cause He is so lovable, because He is our Lord and 
our God. If Christ is our only love and we put all 
our trust in Him, all things else may fail us but 
Christ never. If our confidence in Christ is not 
unbounded we do not love Him as we should. 
We may be aiming at perfect recollection, more 
resigned patience, or utter poverty, but only a 
greater love of Jesus will bring us more perfection 
in these virtues. Our attempts at higher perfec¬ 
tion will cause us suffering, for love cannot exist 
without suffering. Only the love of Jesus can 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


67 


place us above human respect or allow us to bear 
with humiliation. Behold the proud woman of Mag- 
dala, unmindful of the sneers on the lips of those 
about her, not heeding the scornful words that fell 
upon her ears, oblivious of the looks that cut her 
deeper than blows, casting herself humbly at the 
feet of Jesus. Magdalen would have been ashamed 
to have been seen thus at another time, but now 
forgetful of self she glories in her degradation, in¬ 
spired by her great love for Jesus. It can be so with 
us in our humiliations. What we now think small or 
degrading, will be transfigured through love of 
Jesus. So it may be with our soul. It may be sub¬ 
consciously aware of its wretchedness, yet if it does 
not brood upon its fallen state, it is quite possible 
that it may be absorbed in a love of Jesus. Happy 
is the soul who practices unselfish love of God. It 
is a virtue that is rare, even amongst religious, for 
it is human to want to be pleasing to ourselves 
rather than to God. 

A true religious covets the unselfish love that 
Mary of Magdala possessed. How may it be ac¬ 
quired? Scarcely by individual effort, but rather 
by permitting God to do with us as He pleases. 
When I say permitting God I mean also permit¬ 
ting those who represent God, namely, our Supe¬ 
rior and Confessors. We should not be bent upon 
finding out their reasons for direction, but hum¬ 
bly submit to their judgment. True, such humil¬ 
ity is prompted only by the grace of God, aided 
by our own efforts, but God gives to those who 
ask, for has He not said: Ask and you shall re - 


68 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


ceive. A true religious is entitled to look for com¬ 
fort and support from her Superiors. Have we not 
given into their keeping our wills ? Do we not hope 
that we are perfectly understood by them? Not¬ 
withstanding this it often happens that something 
occurs which is difficult for us to understand. Sure¬ 
ly our Superior or our Confessor has misunderstood 
either us or our motive. Are we really what they 
think we are ? Are we deceiving ourselves or them ? 
True confidence in God or our Superior will not 
permit us to question their decisions. Let the sharp 
sword of obedience pierce our souls and purify them. 
If our shortcomings be true, should we not be happy 
that the servant of God make them known to uS? 
If there is some mistake, the sorrow and pain of 
the suspense is beneficial to our souls. Such chas¬ 
tisement helps to keep us in subjection and from 
error, from which none of us are secure even though 
we have lived years in religion without deliberate 
sin. Sorrow is indeed necessary for us all. Our 
Blessed Mother knows her children, she under¬ 
stands our poor fail hearts, and she guards them 
from the snares of the devil by sending angels of 
light to pierce our souls with the sword of sorrow. 
Some of us do not allow the angels to fulfill their 
missions. Our coldness to the higher life keeps 
them away. We steel ourselves to indifference so 
that the sword of sorrow shall not pierce our soul. 
Perhaps we even look for sympathy outside of God 
Now, my dear Sisters, let us not be unwise but 
wise virgins. Let us ever be on the watch for the 
coming of the Bridegroom. If we are anxious for 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


69 


our souls to grow more beautiful in the sight of 
God are we not foolish if we prevent His repre¬ 
sentatives from cultivating sanctity within us? Do 
not say that you do not hinder them for you do 
most signally, when by your pride, or your coldness, 
you prevent your Superior from accomplishing what 
they deem best for you. We can scarcely imagine a 
Superior so imperfect that she did not love the souls 
of those in her charge and desire most ardently 
their spiritual advancement. Indeed* we should 
look with sorrow upon the Superior who would 
make use of the Sisters for the material good of 
the Community whilst neglecting their spiritual 
benefit. 

Never forget that the purifying sword of sor¬ 
row comes to us both through holy and unholy 
means. It is given to us sometimes to suffer even 
through our Superior just as we are often tried by 
those whom we tried to serve. Never forget that 
suffering is the portion of the Spouse of Jesus. It is 
her life work and she must consecrate herself to it. 
She must strive to imitate the gentle Christ in her 
work who always sought to console and relieve the 
sick and the suffering. How can she herself console 
others unless she knows what sorrow is? She must 
be able to feel in every little way what Jesus and 
Mary suffered when on earth. When we think of 
all that Jesus suffered when on earth, and the sword 
of sorrow that passed through the heart of His 
Mother, how consoling to all who love Jesus and 
Mary to know that their sufferings are now glori¬ 
fied in heaven and that never again as long as Al- 


70 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


mighty God reigns shall either of Them know sor¬ 
row. This holy thought should be our consolation 
in all our afflictions and we may add to it the hope 
that some day our sorrow may be transformed into 
the same heavenly joy that Jesus and Mary now 
possess. We can never comprehend the full mean¬ 
ing of those words of the Holy Ghost: And thy own 
soul a sword shall pierce. We have been told by 
those who listened to it that the cry of one pierced 
to the heart is most terrifying in its horror. What 
must it have meant for Mary to see her Divine Son 
suffering. She followed in His foot-steps the 
dolorous way of the Cross, she looked into His 
blood-stained face on the streets of Jerusalem, she 
climbed the heights of Calvary, she annointed His 
sacred body ere it was placed in the tomb. Truly 
it is said that Mary suffered Martyrdom without 
giving up her life! 

We must not, however, continue the meditation 
of Mary’s sufferings for this is not the place. We 
must continue to give our thoughts to the Spouse 
of Jesus crucified and her holy mission of personal 
and vicarious suffering. A true Spouse of Jesus 
must follow the lamb of God on earth in as much as 
she hopes to follow Him in Heaven. Following 
means literally walking in another’s foot-steps, imi¬ 
tating their actions, or being guided by their exam¬ 
ple. Following the Man of Sorrows, therefore, nec¬ 
essarily means a life of poverty, subjection and con¬ 
tradiction. God, however, will strengthen His 
Spouse for her brief time of pain here on earth, and, 
if she be faithful, reward her with a blissful eternity. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


71 


That eternity must come! Are we not in it now? 
Fleeting time is but a small portion of everlasting 
eternity. Once we are born into the world we 
never die. True, after a few years, our mortal body 
will be separated from our soul but that soul will 
live on forever. Is it not literally true, then, that 
our soul is now in eternity only awaiting the hour 
when it shall put off the corruptible body. Then 
shall the true Spouse of Jesus rejoice forever and 
forever. She mourned with Him on earth, but in 
Heaven her mourning shall be turned into joy. On 
earth she was His Spouse, but in Heaven she shall 
be a glorified spirit worshipping before His throne. 

What a deep sorrow it is to the true Spouse of 
Christ to see His children of earth suffering. The 
heart of Jesus permits His earthly Spouse to partici¬ 
pate in the sufferings of others, and even to suffer 
herself, in order that she may appreciate the infinite 
sorrow of the Man-God. Each of us, dear Sisters, 
have our own sanctuary of sorrow. It is a holy 
place. It is sacred to our love, and He alone has 
entrance. Others would profane it and it would no 
longer be a meeting place of two hearts—two hearts 
alone—Jesus and His Spouse. How He cultivated 
that holy love in the heart of His beloved! First 
He created the little spark of life, then he nourished 
it with His own most precious body and blood, 
then He made it all His own by the wonderful vows 
of religion, and surely we hope that one day He will 
consecrate it in His eternal home. Ah, it is in the 
communion of sorrow that the soul becomes true, 
pure and noble. Small sorrows may fret and irritate 


72 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


us, but it is the great sorrows which God Himself 
permits, that bring us more closely to Him. Are 
you fearful that He will not come to console you? 
Consider the lilies of the fields, how they grow: 
they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to 
you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was 
arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the 
field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the 
oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, oh 
ye of little faith? Oh, dear Jesus, give thy Spouses 
strength to bear with love the little and the great 
pains of life: give them fortitude that they may be 
crucified body and soul with Thee, so that after 
their mortal soul puts off their mortal body they 
may be one with Thee, dear Lord! Jesus loves to 
be in close communion with the child He makes 
His bride, but the Spouse of Christ must ever re¬ 
member that that union must be on Calvary’s cross. 
True, it means long-watching and long-suffering to 
stand always beneath the shadow of Calvary. Are 
we really unhappy, however, in our suffering? 
Surely not! We are the happiest creatures on earth. 
Little by little we nerve our bodies to voluntary 
mortifications, and we school our souls even in in¬ 
voluntary sufferings. Willingly we place the cross 
on our shoulders. Let us then make our daily suf¬ 
fering of trials and sorrows more and more generous 
no matter what God sends us. As long as we know 
we must sorrow let us try to be cheerful in the suf¬ 
fering. Let us strive to be more and more glad to 
suffer for the love of our crucified Lord. Sweet 
Jesus, strengthen my will! Help me to bear with 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


73 


fortitude the pains of this poor body, the sufferings 
of this anxious soul. It is hard to endure earth’s 
sorrows but, Jesus, it is easy when Thy holy spirit 
strengthens our will! Life then grows sweet and 
we feel it worth living, when living thus in union 
with Thee. 

Contentment, my dear Sisters, comes not from 
without for it is born from within. When a soul is 
united with the spirit of God it cannot know unhap¬ 
piness. When the spirit of God over-shadows us 
we are living in imitation of our crucified Master. 
There is a peace and happiness in our souls that we 
could not have in the greatest ease and luxury. 
United with Christ we grow in likeness to Him 
until the great day when He Himself with joy and 
gladness will present us to His eternal Father! 

The highest form of religious life is the Spouse of 
Jesus crucified. What matter when or where they 
are nailed to the cross as long as it is done willingly 
and generously in union with their Lord? In what 
climate? In what country? Amongst what kind of 
people? No matter as long as the great sacrifice 
of the Spouse of Jesus is voluntarily made for the 
love of our crucified Saviour. Who now would 
wish to desecrate her holy sacrifice by looking back 
to kinsfolk or native land? “He who loves father, 
mother, brother or sister more than Me is not 
worthy of Me!” (Luke 14:26.) 

Praise be to God the thousands and thousands of 
holy virgins who have left all to follow in the foot¬ 
steps of Jesus! Praise be to God that they have 
been so generous in their sacrifices! Eye hath not 
seen, ear hath not heard. (I Cor. 2:9.) 


CHAPTER TWO 


Penance 

One of the great works of the Holy Ghost is the 
calling of the Brides of Christ. As in most of His 
great works in the world, the Holy Ghost uses our 
Blessed Mother for this purpose. It is to Her that 
He has confided all His chosen ones. After she has 
taken them to Herself, the Mother of God instills 
humility into the hearts of Her children, according 
to the great work with which they are to be en¬ 
trusted and to the heights of perfection to which 
they are to attain. First of all the Mother of God 
makes Her children understand that they are of 
the earth, earthly. She makes them understand 
their own nothingness before the operations of the 
Holy Ghost works upon them. After the Mother 
of God has taken the chosen ones of the Holy Ghost 
to Herself, they are then brought forth into the 
world as the fruit of their spiritual Mother who has 
nurtured them close to Her heart, imbued them with 
Her spirit and impressed upon their souls all the vir¬ 
tues that a mother might give to the child of her 
heart. 

We know the mystical life that follows in some 
of these souls chosen by the Holy Ghost under the 
protection of the Blessed Virgin. Mary trains 
them, watches over their hidden life just as she did 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


75 


with the Child of Nazareth. She teaches them how 
to go forth with Jesus, doing good everywhere. She 
leads them to the altar constantly, that they may 
frequently eat of the Bread of Life, and, as it were, 
live upon Jesus, for such is His desire that they 
should drink of the blood that begets virgins. 

It is necessary that these chosen ones grow 
stronger day by day, in their spiritual life, because, 
just as they have their moments of transfiguration, 
so will they also have their vigils in Gethsemane. 
In these moments of trial even the Blessed Mother 
withdraws Her gentle presence, that had hitherto 
made everything so sweet. And yet the soul needs 
this purifying process of humiliation, before it can 
be strengthened to walk bravely in the footsteps of 
Jesus. Oh, humiliation! how bitter and yet how 
sweet! My dear Sisters, this is the place to medi¬ 
tate upon humility. Humility should be the aim of 
every true religious, no matter what her position, 
and yet few of us arrive at a true estimate of it. 
Few of us have an idea of its loveliness. How 
sweet the odor of its perfume to God and how 
should we not strive to practice it. Humility seems 
to permeate the very existence of a true Religious 
with an atmosphere so holy that almost uncon¬ 
sciously her presence is a benediction and her har¬ 
vest of souls for God beyond number. 

Humility is gained only by humiliations. These 
come through the onward course of the Passion of 
Our Lord which we too have to endure, after we 
have left our vigil in Gethsemane. The humilia¬ 
tions endured there were between our souls and 


76 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


those with whom we have to live when we are 
learning our own weakness. By God’s own ordi¬ 
nance we rose to go forth truly humbled from our 
prostrate condition, from the affliction that taught 
us our own nothingness. Now we have to face 
humiliations before the world. May God help us! 
Shall we suffer them or faint beneath them! May 
the strengthening angels of the Passion bring us 
assistance! Let us acknowledge humbly and hon¬ 
estly that without the help of God or those who 
are deputed by God to assist us we will fail in our 
efforts. “Oh, God, come to my assistance! Oh, 
God, make haste to help me!” Let us be armed 
with this prayer as we daily go forth to carry our 
cross. 

“Ecce Homo! Behold the Man!” Behold Our 
Saviour about to take up His cross! How humble 
and resigned He looks as Pilate presents Him to 
the people. Let us ask of Him the same spirit of 
humility and resignation as we set out upon our 
daily work. We have called Him by the sweet 
name of Jesus over and over again. “My Jesus 
Mercy! Jesus Help Me!” And yet, though this 
picture of the humble Christ should be borne upon 
our hearts every day, how have we spent the day 
when we come to our examination of conscience 
at the end of it? Our souls, our body and our mind 
have each had its appointed cross, rebuff, contra¬ 
diction or pain of some kind. How have we borne 
with them? A slighting word was said to us and 
although we did not rebel outwardly, yet the blood 
ran faster in our veins and our heart felt injured. 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 77 

A blow would have caused less pain and yet we 
might have profited by the word that hurt us so 
much had we remembered Jesus and the indignities 
shown Him, both in word and act, but we lost the 
opportunity and so the Bride of Christ missed the 
entrance of her Spouse. If, with a humble heart, 
she had accepted that unkind, and perhaps insulting 
word; if she had remembered how Jesus stood 
silent when the mob cried out to crucify him, how 
much more happily could she have placed her head 
upon her pillow and thanked her Mother and her 
guardian angel for the opportunity given her of 
proving that she was not the Spouse of Jesus in 
name only, but in word, in deed and in truth. This 
is the moment when Jesus comes to embrace His 
spouse. Do not refuse the proffered embrace. 
What can the embrace of a crucified God be but 
suffering of mind or body? We should be wise 
enough to bear contempt and indignities, if God is 
so good as to give them to us, with sweetness and 
love for the sake of Jesus. Without this our reli¬ 
gious life becomes mere sentiment and our name 
an empty title. Shall we be thought harsh if we 
say that the Spouse of Jesus Crucified is but a 
whited sepulchre of Jesus Crucified, if she does not 
strive to live in harmony with the Lord; which 
means suffering unkind words patiently, ills of the 
body with resignation, and spiritual failure with 
fortitude. If we are not striving for religious per¬ 
fection along these lines, then we are faithless to the 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost and to the maternal 
promptings of the Mother of our divine Saviour. 


78 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Beginning this chapter we told you that one of 
the great works of the Holy Spirit in God’s church 
was the calling of chosen creatures who are espe¬ 
cially selected by God to be united to our incarnate 
Savior. Those virgins who say with St. Agnes, 
“I can have no other love but Jesus Christ.” It is 
not of ourselves that we can be thus wholly de¬ 
tached from creatures, but it is by God’s grace 
alone. We must, however, do our part and that 
consists in self-denial, self-abnegation and humble 
penance. We shall not be pure without self- 
denial, nor shall we be anything but ordinary 
women unless we are mortified in all our thoughts 
and words and actions. Oh, God, seer into the 
hearts of Thy chosen ones Thy holy word! Let 
them hear Thy voice as did the multitude of pure 
souls, who, because they were mortified, were hon¬ 
ored to lay down their lives and shed their blood 
for Jesus. They sprang out of the Passion and are 
the flowers of the Holy Ghost, produce of the pre¬ 
cious blood. 

Look, Sisters, at that bleeding body bound to the 
column! It is quivering with pain as the lashes 
fall upon the shrinking form. There is deep joy, 
however, in the soul of Jesus because out of His 
shame and suffering are to spring those virgins 
who would follow in the footsteps of the Lamb of 
God. Yes, Religious Vocations sprang from the 
Scourging at the Pillar. Though all the blood of 
Christ was shed for the salvation of mankind, yet 
may we say that the blood of Christ shed at the 
Column of the Scourging was especially poured out 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


79 


that His chosen ones might be sanctified. It was 
at the Pillar of His Scourging, dear Sisters, that 
Christ, by His humiliation and suffering, thought 
of us and merited our vocation for us. By the 
blood He then shed He would detach us from the 
world, and attach us to Himself just as He was 
bound to the pillar. Are we not bound to Him by 
holy Vows? Would any of us attempt to undo the 
bonds that bind us to Him? 

If any of these thoughts seem repugnant or if 
we think our religious life hard, then must we be 
on our guard. The religious life is hard if led with¬ 
out Jesus, but easy if obedient to His yoke; My 
yoke is sweet, my burden light. May God make us 
constant, make us firm and strong in our resolu¬ 
tions! Let us beg our Superiors to be firm with 
us, even severe, providing they assist our weak, 
vacilating wills. Is it not true that Superiors have 
Grace from God to help us provided we are obedi¬ 
ent and submissive. God never gives any one an 
office, or a work to do for Him, without giving them 
the necessary Grace; My Grace is sufficient for thee. 
True, Superiors may not lead us as we would like, 
but usually what we like is not the best for us. 
'‘Thou shalt be led whither thou wouldst not” shall 
be said to every soul entering religion, and we are 
most safe with those Superiors, who, regarding not 
the opinion of those around them, lead us where 
we would not. If we are wise we will cherish this 
thought. We may fall in the moment of trial and 
rise up in rebellion, but we will make up by humble 
consecration. But this is not enough. We must 


80 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


ask and obtain leave to do penance. We should con¬ 
tinually mortify our senses, which are constantly 
tempting us to sin. I cannot repeat too often the 
necessity of penance. The Catechism teaches ordi¬ 
nary Christians that our natural inclinations are 
prone to evil from our very childhood and if not 
corrected by self-denial they will certainly carry us 
down to hell. 

There are numberless souls now in hell, de¬ 
prived of the presence of God forever, because they 
were not able to do penance on earth. Are not 
many of them souls who embraced the religious 
state, which is a state of penance, and then after¬ 
wards refused to live up to it. Oh, God, come to 
my assistance! oh, God, make haste to help me! 
Listen to the words of a disciple of St. Philip pour¬ 
ing out his soul full of love for the suffering of the 
heart of God. Describing the agony of mental suf¬ 
fering, which forced the blood from the sacred veins 
in great drops, he said; Jesus saw his Brides, his 
Spouses whom he had wedded to Himself in the 
embraces of the demon. I can say no more, my 
children, it is too horrible! At times God permits 
us to enter into the bleeding heart of Jesus in our 
holy meditations. It is indeed an agonizing experi¬ 
ence, and often we turn faintingly away from it, 
but rather should we regard the suffering of Jesus 
that goes so far toward saving our own souls, and 
the souls of those whom we love. 

Oh, Sisters, would that we were wise! Let us 
pray daily for the coming of the Holy Ghost into 
our hearts! Mary, Spouse of the Holy Ghost, 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


81 


send him to your chosen ones that He might im¬ 
press upon their hearts the spirit of penance. God 
is your portion forever; give Him your heart with 
the hope that your gift will be accepted; a contrite 
and a humble heart God will not despise. 

Oh Mother of our suffering Savior, keep us 
whom thou has chosen faithful unto death! We 
are striving to follow earnestly in the footsteps of 
Christ here on earth, so help us to endure the vigil 
of Gethsemane, to climb the heights of Calvary, to 
stand sorrowfully beneath the cross with the women 
of Galilee—faithful unto the end! 

Then may we one day walk in the Courts of 
Heaven, “following the Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth,” gazing forever on the transfigured face of 
our glorified Savior and uniting our voices with 
the eternal sanctus, sanctus, sanctus of the angels 
who throng about the throne of the infinite God 
of Love. 


CHAPTER THREE 


Mortification 

In speaking of the interior life we have wan¬ 
dered into the subject of penance. We spoke of 
the world within ourselves, which we are to make a 
special garden, a paradise where God expects to 
meet us and hold converse with us, but the thought 
of that world within ourselves must necessarily 
induce the thought of penance, because the interior 
life cannot be sustained without it. As Religious 
we want the soul to have entire dominion over the 
body, but that cannot be done without mortifica¬ 
tion. Little by little, the Mother of God will help 
us to be wholly mortified. Of course we always put 
before ourselves a high ideal, and as a result we are 
somewhat discouraged when we do not live up to 
the ideal. Discouragement is most dangerous to 
the soul; it shows a great want of humility, which 
is knowledge of ourselves. Whenever we fail we 
should accustom ourselves to say: “It’s just like 
me! It is a wonder I did not do worse!” 

The foundation of the interior life is to remem¬ 
ber that we are but an atom that God chose out of 
millions to do a special work for Him to be a Spouse 
of Jesus. This is our ideal. We are too honest, 
please God, not to know what is required of us, 
and how far we are from having attained the per¬ 
fection that our state admits and exacts. We are 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


83 


not better because we are not sufficiently mortified. 
We do not trouble to guard our thoughts, to con¬ 
centrate every heart throb to God, to keep alight 
the lamp of love which should ever burn brightly 
before the tabernacle where Jesus loves to dwell. 

We must not expect that this life of perfection 
is to be attained with the putting on of a holy habit, 
or even when the first vows are made, but we must 
constantly strive for it, looking upon it as a fault 
when we are negligent and keeping up a strict 
watch over ourselves both day and night. We 
must not weary over this interior life. It may be 
to us a desert or a paradise. To the unmortified it 
is a desert, to the humble soul it is a true paradise. 
We go daily to our different works, for it is neces¬ 
sary in our active Orders that we go out from the 
Convent, but yet how the true Religious rejoices in 
returning home from her errand of Mercy because 
it is a work well done. It is the same with the nun 
who does not leave the Convent. She has labors to 
fulfill which she does cheerfully, no matter how 
hard or distressing they may be. All these actions 
are done through holy obedience, and no sooner 
does the true religious leave the parlor, the study, 
the dispensary or kitchen than she immediately, 
even before she reaches the chapel, adores her 
divine Master. There He is waiting for her, as is 
described in the Legend Beautiful. Had she re¬ 
mained in her loving colloquy with her Lord, when 
duty called her away from this happy communion, 
her love would not have manifested Himself to 
her. The poet tells us in his beautiful legend how 


84 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


the monk left our Lord in his cell with some reluc¬ 
tance, knowing that he was going out to fulfill a 
duty. On his return he found Our Lord waiting 
for him in a brilliant vision of light. His face was 
radiant and when the poor monk prostrated him¬ 
self in adoration before Our Lord, the Master said 
to him: “Hadst thou stayed I would have fled. ,, 

How often, dear Sisters, shall we find the same 
circumstance in our daily lives, if we do not neglect 
our Divine Guest but pay court at all hours, return¬ 
ing quickly after each distracting duty to offer Him 
the work we have finished and to beg a blessing on 
the work we are about to commence. Oh how our 
dear Jesus loves those who watch diligently at the 
gates! We keep alive the fire of love in our hearts 
by this attention to our dear Lord. This pleases 
Him more than all our exterior works, though they 
delight Him, and give Him glory, according to the 
love with which we accomplish them. The Blessed 
Trinity is enamoured with the soul that resembles, 
even in an imperfect way, God’s own life. Yes, 
even in this world there are lives that are inexpres¬ 
sibly pleasing to the Most High. Souls who, in the 
midst of their exterior works, live an interior life in 
union with God; souls who are pure and who find 
within themselves that wonderful presence of God, 
their creator, which inspires them with holy fear, 
which is the beginning of wisdom. 

May God preserve us from defiling the temple 
within us, and may the Holy Trinity dwell there as 
on a throne. Let us adore the triune God and offer 
our homage to Father, Son and Holy Ghost! We 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


85 


know our homage is not like the adoration of the 
Thrones—those beautiful spirits, the third choir of 
adoring angels—but it is according to our weakness 
and our infirmity. Our good God disdains not our 
homage, for it gives Him ineffable delight. We 
know very wefl all this is true, dear Sisters, and 
yet through our own negligence we often disap¬ 
point God, and indeed many times disappoint our¬ 
selves. 

We lose the joy of the Holy Spirit when the 
brightness of our souls is dimmed by the passing 
clouds of our self-love, which always pass over the 
soul that is not faithful to the promptings of the 
interior life. The interior life is neglected because 
of lack of mortification. It takes time and patience 
to trim the sanctuary lamp, to bring fresh flowers 
to the altar, to beautify the House of God. There 
are some indeed who take great pains in keeping in 
good order the various apartments under their 
charge, but perhaps they take no pains whatever to 
adorn the temple of their hearts, or keep clean and 
pure the sanctuary of their souls, or in kindling 
the light of love that first burned in their hearts 
when they heard the voice of our Lord calling: 
“My child, give me thy heart!” Ah, me! a half¬ 
hearted nun is not happy, she cannot be. Such a 
one, however, can rise from a negligent condition, 
and even set a neglected sanctuary in order. God 
grant that the sanctuary of that soul has been 
neglected and not desecrated. Mortification will 
again raise it to fervor. Recollection will likewise 
assist, for we cannot be recollected without morti- 


86 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


fication. Distractions of the senses naturally please 
us. Our own thoughts are very dear to us. To re¬ 
frain ourselves from distractions and think only of 
what is pleasing to Our Lord may seem hard, but 
it soon grows sweet to the soul that is mortified. 
Remember, however, that after laboring for years, 
and attaining some advance in the spiritual life, 
nay, even finding it a Paradise where God indeed 
holds sweet communion with the soul, as He did in 
the beginning with our first parents, we are ever 
apt through want of humility to grow lax and to fall 
low. Dear Sisters, let us be wise and be warned, 
as we see examples of how low souls can fall who 
were once so high in God’s favor. Let us be fear¬ 
ful lest our fervor grow cold, or that we may lose 
our spiritual appetite for the things of God. Com¬ 
mence anew, let us slowly but surely begin to prac¬ 
tice mortification. 

Let us, likewise, commence to spiritualize our 
obedience. True, we may be obedient now, but 
let us put more love into it. Mortification is again 
necessary to accomplish this. Indeed it is only 
when trying to offer up every act, to watch every 
thought, to have purity of intention in all that we 
do, when we are really urging on our shrinking 
spirit that we find what mortification it requires. 
We see how much we did in the past that was not 
pure gold, but were acts of our own will. Human 
restraint in our actions makes them more irksome 
but they are religious acts because they attract God, 
and what more do we ask than to keep our Divine 
Love with us. He will help to fight the battle 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


87 


against sloth and selfishness. We must live in this 
world for Jesus alone, but we must meet Him 
where He loves to meet His own—in the Sanctuary 
of Suffering. It is there Jesus meets His beloved 
ones and yet it is a sanctuary many dread to enter. 
Here Jesus presses close to Himself pure generous 
souls who enter willingly, who flinch not as the pain 
pierces, but love the blow as it strikes. They seek 
shelter in Jesus’ wounds for strength to endure 
what they know they could not bear alone. These 
souls are safe. They have indeed found a shelter 
from the world, sin and strife. They have already 
entered into the joy of their Lord. Yes, for the 
joy of Jesus on earth was suffering, shame, and 
humiliations. The delight of His mortal life was 
to suffer. His flesh was human, and it felt the 
smart of the lash and the indignity of the blow, but 
“I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized 
and how am I straitened until it be accomplished.” 
Yes, dearest Lord, His longing was satisfied though 
He allowed His nature to shrink as ours to encour¬ 
age us and comfort us, for we may long for suffering 
and yet at times shrink from it. Enter thou into the 
joy of thy Lord, Spouse of Jesus, you should know 
this joy of earth. It is your right. No one can 
take it from you. Only you can hinder God’s good 
designs, and you only are the one who can shut 
this Sanctuary, and thus you know not the embrace 
of your Spouse. Enter into the joy of your Lord. 
Cry to Him, Wounded Flesh of Jesus unite me to 
Thee. 


88 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Spouse of Jesus, meet your Spouse in the Nup¬ 
tial Chamber, the Sanctuary of Suffering, and it will 
be well with thee. Thy children shall be as olive 
branches round the Table of the Lord and He shall 
call them blessed. The pain will soon be over, the 
crucifixion of the flesh; that wounded spirit; those 
nerves quivering with anguish of mind and body. 
These ordeals are painful, but not half so painful 
as the excessive indulgences of the so-called pleas¬ 
ures of the senses. Bruise your flesh a little. Are 
you not a sacrifice to God? Do not fall in with 
the foolish idea of the age that penance cannot be 
performed. We have to be an example to the world, 
whether enclosed or active. God will give us grace 
to keep our rule. Let not the general tendency to 
relaxation creep into the cloistered walls. Keep up 
your good practices. Perform your penances. Break 
not the enclosure to please the age. God will and 
God has raised up Orders to do His works in the 
world. You should continue to pray and suffer and 
mortify yourself. Dear Sisters, Spouses of Jesus, 
who, by the will of God are placed in the world, 
think not that your work suffices for all penance. 

Ah, no, listen not to the arguments that are 
used to persuade you. You are an enclosed garden 
to your God. Allow not your enclosure to be 
broken. Your body is His temple, your soul His 
sanctuary. Your heart must be pure, unspotted 
from the world. You must do penance. How are 
you to resemble your Spouse if your flesh is so 
pampered that it cannot bear a blow? You need to 
do penance—voluntary penance—to keep your com- 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


89 


pact, to be in the world and not of it. You have to 
teach the world the doctrine of Christ, and this 
includes penance. You cannot speak of what you 
do not understand. Holy Spirit, enlighten Thy 
Spouses! Give them the Gift of Wisdom from Thy 
Throne of Grace! Let their mystical robe be stud¬ 
ded with jewels! Let Thy chaste Spouses lead 
angelic lives crucified to the world and dead to 
human affections, living only for Thy love, despis¬ 
ing all other affections, desiring earnestly Thy 
esteem, living their lives but for Thee, that dying 
their deaths may become a holocaust of Sacrifice 
delightful to Thee. Pour forth Thy Spirit and our 
hearts shall be regenerated, and Thou shalt renew 
the face of the earth. 

Dear Sisters, remember time flies! Are we at 
work? Yes, we have many works. I will not say 
too many, but there may be too many if they hin¬ 
der us from our one Great Work. W’e must be 
saints, and to be saints we must do penance. Our 
works alone will not sanctify us. They will not, 
indeed, sanctify others if we are not in union with 
Our Love in His Life on earth and imitate His love 
of suffering. We with our weak wills, our cowardly 
natures, our shrinking bodies and proud and sensi¬ 
tive souls could not live this life nor die the death 
of the true Spouse of Jesus if left to ourselves. God 
alone can make this possible. He will, He longs to, 
if we will only let Him and we will. Dear Mother 
Mary, we promise Thee that we will! In life and 
death we will be in union with Jesus. He is ours 
and we are His! 


PART THREE 




THE SPOUSE OF JESUS GLORIFIED 

CHAPTER ONE 

* The Reward 

“I have inclined my heart to do thy justifications 
forever—for the reward.” (Ps. 118:112.) 

God is just, and will reward each one according 
to his works and He wishes us to look forward to 
the reward. He desires us to be grateful for the 
rich reward He has prepared in the next life in re¬ 
turn for the little we have done here on earth. Even 
in the world it is so. Does not a kindhearted per¬ 
son who prepares a pleasure for another desire that 
that person should be pleased? When we prepare a 
fete for children and tell them beforehand, how glad 
we are to see their eyes sparkle in the joy of antici¬ 
pation. So it is with Our Good God. Having pre¬ 
pared a great joy for the little momentary struggles 
we go through, are we then not to look forward to 
it? Besides, it is not only our own joy but we 
rejoice to know that those near and dear, whom we 
have loved and tried to help, will, if they are faith¬ 
ful, receive also their reward. There will be no 
more breaking hearts and grief-stricken souls 
which we have so sorrowed for. Yes, we shall 
rejoice in the happiness of those about us, and our 
joy will overflow because we know we are a delight 
to God for evermore. 

What are we to be in Heaven? I, an atom, am 
to accomplish a certain task for my God. He chose 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


91 


me for a particular purpose. I can frustrate or ful¬ 
fill His dear designs. Consider how an artist 
chooses one piece of marble rather than another 
from which to form a statue. So God chooses one 
atom rather than another to accomplish His pur¬ 
pose. God drew me out of nothing. God breathed 
into me Life. God has given me grace to do a glori¬ 
ous work for Him. We are in God’s Church Mili¬ 
tant, the Spouses of Jesus in the Blessed Sacra¬ 
ment, Spouses of Jesus Crucified, not in word but 
in deed and in truth. Let each one of us examine 
our conscience. Does my body bear the marks of 
the Crucified? Has My Spouse embraced me? Have 
I been ever true and brave, or have I been cow¬ 
ardly? Am I joyful in suffering? Do I esteem it 
an honor? Is my soul unselfish, solely bent on God 
and His? 

The Spouse of Jesus Crucified! Ah, the name is 
beautiful! We must not think, however, that be¬ 
cause we bear this name we have done our part. 
What does it imply, we ask once more? That we 
have to live for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament— 
live with Him, feeding and strengthening our souls 
with Him. Indeed, has He not bade all Christians 
to do this—“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my 
blood you shall not have life in you.” “My flesh 
is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.” Sis¬ 
ters, we can alone be pure by means of the Precious 
Blood. Only by means of His Sacrament of love can 
we live up to our high estate. The Blessed Sacra¬ 
ment is held aloft as we pronounce our vows. It is 
the pledge of our union. We make our vows and 


92 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


we are united to our love. Who, henceforth, conse¬ 
crates our souls as chosen sanctuaries. He will live 
in our hearts as He remains in the Tabernacle. Dear 
Sisters, Jesus, knowing our need, gives Himself to 
help us on our way. 

Jesus, my own! These words are a consolation 
to us here on earth, but what will they mean to us 
when this life has passed away, and Eternity com¬ 
mences. The joy will be ever fresh. Jesus, my all, 
Thou art mine for all eternity! Thou hast given 
Thyself to me! I long for Eternity to thank Thee, 
to love Thee! Oh Holy Virgins, St. Agnes, St. 
Cecelia, St. Catherine, come to my aid! I am con¬ 
fused before you, but I rejoice in your great joy! 
I offer again and again Thy merits, Oh my Sweet 
Jesus, to supply my deficiencies. Oh My Beloved, 
I desire not to live but if I live I desire only to suf¬ 
fer—Thy Grace supporting me. Thus would I 
wish to correct the many defects of my life. My 
Jesus, I plead with you. Have pity on me and re¬ 
store to me that which I have lost through ignor¬ 
ance or human frailty. Sweet Jesus, I plead my 
unfitness, yet must I be true and acknowledge how 
Thou hast helped me. Would that I had been more 
faithful to thy inspirations and listened more atten¬ 
tively for Thy sweet Voice. Forgive Thy poor 
weak creature and let not my unworthiness hinder 
those whom Thou hast entrusted to my care. 

The Fight is Over and Death Comes to the 
Spouse of Jesus. 

Death! Yes, but death means Life—Eternal 
Life! Most of us have known one saintly soul in 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


93 


this life. We have most of us mourned over the 
death, the precious death, of one beloved by God 
and Man. It is ended. That life so lovely, that soul 
which was such a wonderful instrument in the 
hands of its Creator, and whose music was so sweet, 
a grand melody—Pathetic, Sublime, Mournful, Sor¬ 
rowing, ever triumphant! And now the last 
“Amen” has been sung. The last “Amen.” No 
more will that sweet music enter our hearts, but its 
echo lives within us, making us long to be a joy to 
God in this life and a glory to Him in Eternity. 
Making us pray to avoid that which is unholy lest 
we cause discord and offend our God instead of 
pleasing Him. 

Our God has been especially good to us and 
favored us in a way we cannot know in this life. 
He has given us the grace to give ourselves to Him. 
What have we given up and what have we received 
in return? God has given us a special light to see 
what a glorious thing it is to give the life He gave 
to us back to Himself. And then—in exchange for 
this little soul and body—He gives Himself. Yes 
even in this life, before our death, Jesus gives Him¬ 
self to us. What does this mean? Jesus is ours. 
Sisters, let us each say to herself, “J esus is mine, 
my own!” Look at that adorable face and whisper, 
“Jesus, you are mine, my very own.” The young 
virgin Agnes said this and felt it. Ah, would that 
we could feel as she did. Jesus is mine. I can 
have no other Love but Jesus Christ! I love. I 
am loved. Not with earthly love, but with Infinite 
love. His eyes are bent on me for I am His. I 


94 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


possess Him in life and in death we shall be united 
in a way we cannot understand now. If I live alone 
for Him in this world He is mine for all Eternity. 

Dear Sisters, we need not, we must not fear the 
passage into Eternity. Jesus Himself will be our 
Guide. It is glorious to Him that we should make 
a grand act of Hope and Trust. That we, who have 
striven to be his helpers on earth, should, at the 
hour of Death, be helped and succored by Him in 
an especial manner. We will pray for that hour 
when Jesus comes to claim His own. That soul 
is already entirely His that is free from all attach¬ 
ments of this earth, pure by means of a life of mor¬ 
tification and self-abnegation. When the Divine 
Reaper comes it is ready. 

The constant contradictions, misunderstandings, 
which we have to bear, if borne with patience and 
humility, the constant watchfulness over every 
movement of the body, and of the mind, are the ties 
which bind the Spouse of Jesus Crucified to her 
Lord interiorly as well as exteriorly. The true 
Spouse of Jesus has no ties to earth and self, to 
break at the hour of death. She is ready to be 
transplanted, and with what love her Divine Spouse 
will press her to His bosom is known only to Him¬ 
self. Those near to the Sacred Heart echo its joy, 
and the “Quae est ista” is answered with joy by 
those innumerable voices and the Bride rejoices in 
the happiness of Her Lord. 

. This is for you and for me, dear Sisters. It will 
soon come—that short, short span of life will soon 
be over and we will enter into Eternity. What 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


95 


that Eternity is no man knoweth, for we cannot see 
God in this life. It seems to me we could not live 
on earth if we saw Our Dear Lord adored and loved 
as He should be. The joy of our hearts would be 
too great. Imagine if every part of the world was 
crowded with human beings and Jesus appeared, 
borne by the Choirs of Thrones, and every heart 
bounded with love and every voice cried out Hail, 
Jesus, our King! Our Lord and Master! Dear 
Sisters, could you or I bear the sight? It seems to 
us that our hearts which have so often sorrowed foi* 
Jesus, and have been pierced with grief for Him, 
could not bear to live on through the rapture caused 
by the sight of millions and millions of human be¬ 
ings saluting Jesus as their King. If our human 
sight was increased so that we could see all over 
this vast globe, and our hearing made so acute that 
we could hear from pole to pole, and we saw and 
heard innumerable people all employed in praising 
God, even in this mortal life, and could hear the 
earth echo and re-echo with a cry of praise to their 
Lord Jesus, the Conqueror of Sin and Death, what 
should we feel? 

Ah, then, what must Heaven be like! We need 
thus to look up to Heaven to recognize it as the 
only country where we really can live as Spouses 
of Jesus Crucified, detached from the world only 
desiring to live a short time on earth in the most 
perfect manner so as to give the greatest joy to our 
God in the next life. Keeping our hearts detached 
from country, place or person we will live purely 
as chaste Spouses of Jesus, and thus fulfill the in- 


96 


THE BRIDES QF CHRIST 


junction of the Holy Ghost we have referred to so 
often. “Harken my daughter and incline thine ear. 
Forget thy people and thy father’s house for the 
King hath greatly desired thy beauty.” Think of 
it, dear Sisters, as you kneel before the Tabernacle, 
for you have Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in all 
your convents, although there may be exceptions, 
yet the rule of most Orders provides that the 
Spouse of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament live under 
the same roof with her dear Lord. 

Of course temporary absences from the convent 
are necessary in many active Orders, but, dear Sis¬ 
ters, Jesus knowing in His great wisdom our great 
need of Him, and that we cannot remain always 
under the same roof with Himself as do so many of 
His favored Spouses, gives us the special grace to 
keep Him in our hearts always. He seems to ani¬ 
mate some especially with this indwelling of Him¬ 
self. It is the Infant Jesus who seems to live 
within those of Mary’s children who, by their fidel¬ 
ity to grace and their rules, prove they are Jesus’ 
own true Spouses. This stage of Jesus’ life suits 
all times—waking, sleeping and at recreation. The 
Infant Jesus reposes in their hearts. Weary nights 
are sweetened by His presence. Feasts and recrea¬ 
tions have a similitude to the days of original inno¬ 
cence and this constant union with Jesus in the 
Blessed Sacrament, this appeal to “Dear Little 
Jesus” at all times renders the soul stronger for 
those hours which the Spouse of Jesus Crucified 
must spend with Him on Calvary. Ah glorious 
life! Sweet vocation! Gift of God! 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


97 


My God, I thank Thee from the innermost 
depths of my heart. I thank Thee as I would have 
wished to thank Thee when You brought me into 
existence. Thy Eternal Love has wished that I 
would lead this life for Thee. From all eternity 
Thou hast decreed that I should be a joy to Thee 
and by Thy grace, I will obey Thee. Therefore, I 
look forward to Heaven. Sisters, let us look up. 
Mary, Our Mother, reigns on high. Look up and 
long to follow, faithful to God’s designs as she was 
—blessed above all women. Be generous, be in 
earnest in the very smallest occurrences of life if 
you would be with your Mother. Walk as she did. 
Look, in her train countless virgins follow! How 
glorious they are. If you would be one of them, 
walk as she did. They have marks of special beauty 
which they won on their earthly journey. They 
loved pains and sufferings of soul and body. They 
suffered for others in union with their Lord. Love 
beautified their work and their rest. Ah then! 
Look up and see Christ’s Spouse. Is she not beauti¬ 
ful? Would you not walk with her in Heaven fol¬ 
lowing the Lamb wherever* He goes? Then you 
must walk in Her steps on earth. You must bear 
the marks on your soul and body of Jesus Crucified. 
Then, at your death, troops of angels will surround 
you and angelic voices sing as they bear you to 
your love—“Hail Spouse of Jesus Glorified” and 
that salutation will echo and re-echo, for the 
Mother bids her child welcome and Jesus no longer 
hides the pent-up love that He showed not on earth, 


98 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


or, indeed, earth would have been Heaven. His 
Spouse had received faint glimpses of it, as it were, 
from time to time, but now in Heaven for evermore 
she knows she is a glory of Jesus’ Passion and that 
she has fulfilled the will of the Most High. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Thanks be to God! Thanks 
be to Jesus’ Precious Blood! Thanks be to the 
Mother Christ gave His children! Thanks to the 
Angels and Saints! Life’s battle is over. The Vic¬ 
tory won. God’s will. God’s will alone for ever¬ 
more. Amen! 


CHAPTER TWO 


The Bride of Glory 

We finish this little work of love by glancing 
again at the Alpha and Omega from Whom we 
come and to Whom we go. Yes, in that Eternity, 
where we were conceived in the Mind of God we 
are to rest forever if we finally persevere. God be 
praised, for it was by His Grace that we succeeded. 
There were many failures in the battle of life; many 
a rent in the Wedding garment which we tried to 
make, but we repaired them from the merits of 
the Passion of Jesus our Spouse. We know full 
well that our thoughts, words and actions were far 
from perfect. Many a time during our mortal life 
we had failed our God. We had become deserters 
from our true colors; we were cowards when the 
Cross of Christ was presented to us to bear. Still 
there were other moments, glorious moments, when 
we rejoiced with the Angels by humble accusations 
of our faults, by true contrition, by mortifications, 
and, also, under obedience, by penance. 

The Spouse of Jesus Glorified indeed finds in 
Heaven that not a word or deed performed in union 
with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, not a word 
or deed born in union with Jesus Crucified, has 
passed unnoticed or unrewarded, or without giving 
Eternal glory to her God for Whom she worked 
and suffered in these few days of time. It was hard 
at the time; the unkind or contemptuous word fell 


100 THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 

on the soul like the stroke of a lash upon the body, 
but she remembered she was the Spouse of Jesus 
Crucified, and she bore it patiently for love of Him. 
Sickness assailed that body, now so glorious, and 
the weak flesh quailed before the bitter pain, but 
she turned to her spouse and received from Him 
strength to suffer. It is indeed well for her now, 
for there is a special glory given to her in Heaven 
in reward for these days of suffering on earth. Ah, 
well indeed is it with you now, Blessed soul, there 
is no more mourning or sorrow, for God Himself 
has wiped away all tears from your eyes and has 
lifted you up from the valley of tears and placed 
you with the Blessed to glorify Him for all eternity. 
You passed through lonely days on earth, dark 
days, in which shone no glimmer of light, but even 
in the darkness you clung to the hard wood of the 
Cross upon which God had placed you and prayed 
to be resigned to His Holy Will. You thought of 
the darkness and dereliction of Calvary and united 
your loneliness with all that was suffered there. 
Now you are rewarded. It is all over. It was a 
fearful risk, but you thank God for the great things 
He did for you. You are the object of His Com¬ 
placency for evermore. You can rejoice in His 
love for all eternity; it will never change and you 
will never change. You are united forever to the 
unchangeable God. What an inconceivable joy 
and relief to know that at length, after all our 
human fickleness, we shall never again alter or 
change. We always knew, for faith taught it to 
us, that God was immutable. He changes not, but 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


101 


we feared ourselves, our fickle changeable nature. 
We knew how easily we changed, and we lived 
with the fearful possibility of perhaps losing our 
God forever. 

That bondage of fear is now over; no such dread 
can ever again disturb our peace. No doubt or 
trouble can molest us or ruffle the ineffable calm 
and joy of Christ’s chosen Bride. We possess God 
forever, He has set us free from our prison-house 
and the Sacred Heart of Jesus rejoices in the trophy 
of His Passion. The Spouse of Jesus Glorified re¬ 
joices not only in her own happiness but after her 
joy in the knowledge that God delights in her there 
is no keener bliss than her joy in the happiness of 
those around her, especially those who- are Her 
Own, Her Own in this sense that her Spouse Who 
redeemed them made use of Her to co-operate with 
Him, in saving them. Thus those sufferings of 
time, have, for all eternity, brought joy to human 
souls the images of God. 

Can we realize what it means? Joy, jubilee, 
bliss forever. The angels chanting sweet melodies 
to which the harmony of human hearts are attuned. 
These Redeemed souls sing songs in Sion, they 
sing songs of salvation, of the triumphs of their 
Savior’s Precious Blood. The Spouse of Jesus 
sees her Love in all His Glory, and with heart and 
soul raised to heights unknown on earth she 
praises, prays and pleads. She praises God for 
His goodness to the children of men, she prays for 
her people that they may love and serve God on 
earth, in order to possess the joys and happiness of 


102 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


Heaven; she pleads for sinners on earth, for whom 
she can no longer suffer, but through those suffer¬ 
ings she possessed such power with God and she 
presents them to Him, united with His. 

We cannot sufficiently praise God for His ways, 
which are so wonderful, though we, at present, un¬ 
derstand them so little. We look forward hereafter 
to know Him as we are known. The ways of earth 
are indeed wearisome when they are not referred 
to Heaven, but it is very sweet when we walk 
those ways with the intention of lovingly leading to 
God the souls whom He created, and for Whom 
Jesus died. When our lives are lived for God, and 
we walk in the light that He always gives to those 
who seek it, we can say, with many a saintly Bride 
of Christ: “Oh, beautiful life that is for God alone!” 
What matters it if the sufferings are painful, the 
days long and tedious, nay even the hours, as a 
holy Spouse of Jesus said in dying, How long He 
is driving in the third nail! What does it matter. 
It is all over now and He will be, forever, our re¬ 
ward exceeding great. It is all very short, passing 
swiftly, as a lightning flash in comparison with 
Eternity. 

Look up then, dear Sisters, from this desert 
where you walk leaning on your Beloved. He leads 
you, it is true, along rough paths, through track¬ 
less wastes in this world, but you are to follow Him 
whithersoever He goeth in Heaven. That is the 
unknown joy which you cannot understand in this 
world. But this we know, it must be something 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


103 


that will give Him delight. That is to be our su¬ 
preme happiness in Heaven, to be a joy to Him 
Whom we have ever loved above aught else and 
His joy will be ours. Can we say more? We would 
wish to, and yet we cannot worthily clothe in words 
the image of that Eternal Life of Glory. 

Let us go to the Heart of Jesus, and there re¬ 
solve for God’s sake, as well as our own, for the 
sake of those around us, whom we meet everyday, 
as like our Lord we go about everywhere doing 
good, for the sake of souls whom we may never 
know on earth, that we will work and suffer on, 
generously and cheerfully. Some day we shall find 
that we have helped to obtain for others that happi¬ 
ness of which it has been said, Eye hath not seen, 
ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man to conceive the things God hath pre¬ 
pared for them that love Him—and who have 
served Him and His, in word and deed, and in truth. 

Nothing is forgotten. What a wonderful truth 
to ponder on. We cannot rightly appreciate that 
marvelous thought—that every incident, no matter 
how small in our lives, is recorded by the angles 
above. It would seem almost childish to us to 
imagine that such trivial incidents are remembered 
above, but Our Dear Lord’s words must always be 
revered, and they are very clear and to the point. 
He tells us that a cup of cold water given in His 
name will have its reward. Even amid the splen¬ 
dors of the Heavenly Court this small act done for 
His sake will not be forgotten. How many such 
acts may there not be performed during the day by 


104 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


the one who truly loves Jesus. What a pity it is 
that we are not more earnest in forming intentions, 
which give an inestimable value to the smallest ac¬ 
tion done for God’s sake. We might look at the 
inanimate creation, and from it learn the great re¬ 
sults which come from the smallest and most hidden 
sources. Nothing is lost. From the insignificant 
acorn comes the mighty oak, and the minute patient 
work of unseen insects produce those marvels of 
beauty, the coral reefs of the Southern Seas. So it 
is, but in a far higher degree in the spiritual life. 
The hidden act, the silent prayer, the penance per¬ 
formed unknown to others, are producing effects 
which would seem to us almost incredible. Yet, the 
comparisons drawn from the natural world are poor 
and inadequate. We have our dear Lord’s words 
to teach us how we should value our actions, both 
good and bad, for if the cup of cold water given in 
His name is to be rewarded so also have we to give 
an account of every idle word. When we think of 
the many idle, and worse than idle words we speak, 
is not the comparison sufficiently forcible? Yet, if 
for every idle word we have to render a strict ac¬ 
count, we must remember that for every good word 
we shall receive a reward. Good words do not nec¬ 
essarily mean clever ones, and we should remember 
that words have wonderful powers for good or 
evil, and we do not always value them enough. Let 
us repeat that first chapter of the Gospel of Saint 
John, with great devotion, and let us make an offer¬ 
ing at the beginning of the day for all our words, 
begging our angel to steep them in the Precious 


THE BRIDES .OF CHRIST 


105 


Blood. If we do this in the morning and strive to 
renew the offering frequently during the day, how 
precious will our life become to God. We shall 
never know its value till Jesus leads his happy 
Bride through the Courts of Heaven to the Throne 
of the Eternal Father, to place the crown of glory 
upon her beatified brow. 

How many of the jewels which adorn it have 
been formed by words, which we have spoken with 
a pure intention and in union with our Love. Let 
us look forward to that rewarding day; we may 
often feel weary of this sad time of struggle, this 
time when we must sow in tears, but it would cheer 
us if we thought more of the day of recompense 
when we shall bring our sheaves of joy. The value 
of time and of even the least human actions is shown 
by the exceeding great reward given in that reign 
of bliss above. 

Ah, Blessed Ones, who have gone before; who 
have fought the good fight; you who have been 
welcomed by Our Lady to Heaven; you who form 
part of the glory of the Sacred Humanity, who see 
Jesus face to face, plead for us, now, that we may 
also value those hours which the angels bring us, 
watching us to see that we use them well for God’s 
glory. 

Dear Sisters, we have met together, and, 
though at a distance, we have walked hand in hand 
many of the paths of life; humility on one side and 
love on the other have helped us on the royal road 
of Religious perfection. If we have had such love 
for each other on earth what will it be when we 


106 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


reach Heaven? Some souls may have been saved 
and others sanctified, by the sufferings and sacri¬ 
fice of the Spouse of Jesus Crucified, which will be 
one of the greatest joys of the Spouse of Jesus Glori¬ 
fied, as she reigns with her Lord in Heaven. It 
will seem almost a surprise, for the words of the 
Gospel have an astonished ring, “Lord, when did we 
see thee hungry and fed thee; thirsty and gave thee 
to drink? And when did we see thee a stranger 
and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? Or 
when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to 
thee?” The answer comes passing sweet, “As long 
as you did it to one of these my- least brethren you 
did it to me.” (Matt. 25:37-40.) We love to re¬ 
peat those words of Jesus, the words of the en¬ 
tranced soul as He sees the fruit of her labors. 

Then, Spouse of Jesus Crucified, in the day of 
darkness, in the day of trial, in the hour when you 
are condemned, look up for your Spouse is smiling 
upon you and blessing you. Be very glad for your 
reward is very great in Heaven. Nothing is for¬ 
gotten. Think of this, dear Sisters, when you find 
the struggle so weary; when you are worn with 
the strife and conflicts of life; the spiritual danger 
which is ever on the increase; when disease and 
pain are racking your body, fight on, endure bravely, 
for God sees. God knows and understands, even 
when the holy are deceived and you are misunder¬ 
stood and calumniated. God watches the workings 
of your heart, its incense of resignation, its outpour¬ 
ings of love, its offerings of the trials permitted. 
You are all most pleasing in His sight. God sees 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


107 


and rejoices in the brave generous soul. Nothing is 
forgotten. These small acts of patience, of mortifica¬ 
tion, of silence—all are noted. Nothing is forgotten. 
Praise be to Jesus Christ, blessed be His Holy Name 
forever, and blessed is the soul who has taken up 
the Cross, and follows Him in Poverty, Chastity and 
Obedience. 

Take courage, then, for the Eyes of God are bent 
upon you with inexpressible complacency and love. 
Together with Christ’s priests, His other selves, you 
are to be the great glory of the Sacred Humanity. 
Look forward to what you are to be for all Eternity, 
the Spouse of Jesus Glorified. Do not weary then, 
in the oft-times bitter fight, the conflict with sin 
and self, and remember that this is an extraordi¬ 
nary era in the world’s history. The Church is 
passing through a period, which is typifying the 
Sacred Passion. As our dear Lord spoke with such 
gratitude of those who had continued with Him in 
His trials, so God is now blessing tenderly, and 
helping with unwonted graces, those who have re¬ 
mained faithful to Holy Church, in this Her hour 
of trial. Be ye faithful unto death, faithful in the 
path of perfection. You have vowed to leave all; 
you are very dear to God; you adorn and honor 
His Church on earth, and if you are faithful you 
will be Its glory in Heaven. 

You will be doubly glorified for having perse¬ 
vered in the way of penance, in the path of perfec¬ 
tion, at a time almost unprecedented in the history 
of the world. The Bark of Peter sails on bravely 
through the storm, but the storm is no less fearful 


108 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


and the fight is a deadly one. He who is not with 
God is against Him, and in how many places dare 
you, without fearing some disrespect, mention His 
Name? 

In this little work, which we are now concluding, 
we have striven to follow the Bride of Christ 
through her life on earth, and now we look up to 
the Spouse of Jesus Glorified in Heaven. We try 
to understand, to taste and to see how sweet the 
Lord is to those who love Him. May He be 
thanked for those dear ones who have gone before 
us, and who have fought the battle bravely. From 
the height to which we have endeavored to follow 
them we look down upon the plains of earth. Is it 
with disgust or contempt? Ah, no, for earth en¬ 
abled them to be what they are—the ransomed 
trophy of the Passion of Jesus, and a great glory 
to His Sacred Humanity forever. Blessed indeed 
is the earth where Jesus’ feet have trod, and where 
He asked others to follow Him. There are some 
who have trodden, more closely, in those Sacred 
Steps, following him in Poverty, Chastity and Obe¬ 
dience. Though they often stumbled and were 
tempted to look back there was One who lifted 
them up and led them on. One invisible, indeed, to 
them but visible to the Angels who exclaimed in 
wonder, “Quae est ista? Who is she who cometh up 
from the desert, leaning on the arm of Her Be¬ 
loved?” It is indeed a desert, but what matters 
that? Any place where Jesus helps us, holds us up, 
leads us on, is flooded with joy and light. His Pres¬ 
ence transforms the darkest and most arid desert 


THE BRIDES OF CHRIST 


109 


since the day when “earth opened and budded forth 
a Saviour.” We look upon it now, with increasing 
reverence, for the Lowly One Who has conde¬ 
scended to wed human nature to Himself, has 
taught others to be lowly and to seek to be united 
to Him, if, in His great condescension, He would 
accept their offering, and wed them to Himself. 

The Sacred Vows have been made, and they who 
on earth strove to walk the way of the Blessed, in 
Meekness, Humility and Obedience, choosing the 
better part, having been espoused on earth to the 
Lamb of God, will be eternally honored in Heaven 
as the Spouse of Jesus Glorified. 











































































































































OUR LADY’S LIBRARY 


Approved and recommended by Ecclesiastical Authorities. 

The following books which compose Our Lady’s Little 
Library Series have all been written by Venerable Mother 
Mary Potter, the foundress of the Little Company of Mary. 


Our Lady’s Retreat; or, Mary’s Whispers to Her Children 
During a Nine Days’ Retreat. 

The Loves Which Reign in the Heart of Mary. 

Our Lady’s Comfort to the Sorrowful. 

Spiritual Exercises of Mary. 

Mary’s Conferences to Her Loving Children. 

The Path of Mary. 

A Message from the Mother Heart of Mary. 

Mary’s Call to her Loving Children; or, Devotion to the 
Dying. 

The Human Life of Jesus. 

The Attributes of God. 

Our Lady and the Early Christians. Two volumes. 


Spiritual Maternity. 
















































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